Events

SEMS Seminar Series: Dr Emilio Martínez-Pañeda, Imperial College London

Date: Wednesday 1 March 2023 15:00 - 16:00

Location: PP2

ABSTRACT

Material degradation challenges at the interface between mechanics, chemistry and materials science are hindering the energy transition. Examples include the embrittlement of metals exposed to hydrogen, cracking and interface instabilities in Li-Ion batteries, and the early failure of wind turbines due to corrosion. However, there is an opportunity now to develop electro-chemo-mechanical models that can predict these material degradation phenomena, bring new insight, and serve as a platform for testing potential solutions.

In this talk, I will showcase how new experimental insight, increasing computer power, multi-physics modelling paradigms and the development of phase field techniques capable of handling evolving interfaces have opened new horizons in the simulation and prediction of technologically-relevant phenomena in the areas of hydrogen embrittlement, Li-Ion batteries (conventional and all-solid-state), and metallic corrosion. Emphasis will be placed on the development of new electro-chemo-mechanical schemes that can explicitly simulate the underlying physical processes. Also, I will showcase how phase field methods enable predicting complex interfacial phenomena: from fracture mechanics to corrosion. The predictive capabilities of these formulations will be demonstrated by benchmarking against experimental data. Large-scale case studies of engineering interest will also be addressed to demonstrate the potential of phase field multi-physics modelling in enabling Virtual Testing in the energy sector.

BIO

Dr Emilio Martinez-Paneda FIMMM is a Senior Lecturer in Mechanics of Materials at Imperial College London, where he leads the Mechanics of Infrastructure Materials Lab. Prior to joining Imperial College as Lecturer in September 2019, Dr Martinez-Paneda was an 1851 Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. His research interests span a wide range of topics within applied mechanics, such as corrosion, iceberg calving, battery degradation, small scale plasticity, rock fracture, computational mechanics, hydrogen embrittlement and small scale testing. Dr Martinez-Paneda has published more than 70 scientific papers in the best journals in the field and received numerous prestigious awards and fellowships for his contributions. Among others, Dr Martinez-Paneda is the recipient of RILEM’s Gustavo Colonetti Medal, SEMNI’s Simó Prize, IMechE’s Prestige Award for Risk Reduction in Mechanical Engineering and the Royal Academy of Engineering UK’s Young Engineer of the Year award.