Lights, Camera, Action!!! A Story of Applying Full Field Optical Metrology to Understand the Mechanical Behavior of Materials

Dr. Antonios Kontsos
Henry M. Rowan Foundation Professor in Mechanical Engineering
Director of the Digital Engineering Hub
Rowan University

Abstract
In an almost parallel way to the impact and applications that the Finite Elements Method (FEA) has had in investigating material effects in engineering applications ranging from fundamentals to applied manufacturing, this talk will focus on the role full field optical metrology has played in the past decade in shaping the way advanced mechanical characterization assisted by modern digital engineering approaches based on imaging, can be applied. It is a fact that material discovery and development rely on extensive amounts of data collected by multiscale characterization, testing, and simulations, the processing and understanding of which result to lengthy incubating times from inception to deployment of advanced materials in cutting applications in aerospace, defense, health, and manufacturing. In this context, the fundamental need for materials development has been greatly assisted by the now “run-of-the-mill” application of advanced optics coupled with numerical methods, computing, and fundamental mechanics in delivering unprecedented amounts of data related to the spatiotemporal evolution of multiscale material effects. This talk will present my personal journey in using full field optical methods to understand how to compute inputs for numerical simulations and explain material behavior. Applications presented include the combination of such optical methods with other characterization approaches such as scanning electron microscopy, their coupling with other sensing and nondestructive evaluation tools such as acoustics, as well as their application in a range of time and length scales with the intent to observe material behavior that relates to plasticity, fracture, fatigue, and creep. Current projects and future opportunities in the area of material informatics are also mentioned as a means to expose and address the challenges ahead.

Biography 
Dr. Antonios Kontsos is the first Henry M. Rowan Foundation Professor in Rowan University’s Mechanical Engineering Department and Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering, where he also serves as the inaugural Director of the Digital Engineering Hub (DEHub). His research focuses on digital engineering, with an emphasis on integrating the physical and digital domains through data streams and digital twins. To achieve this, he employs a combination of theory, experiments, modeling, manufacturing, and simulations. Dr. Kontsos utilizes multiphysics sensing and multiscale testing methods across various time and length scales, incorporating digital signal processing, numerical simulations, artificial intelligence techniques, and internet of things (IoT) architectures to design and evaluate materials and predict their behavior. In conjunction with his research, he teaches topics related to solid mechanics, advanced manufacturing, and cyberphysical systems. Dr. Kontsos completed his postdoctoral fellowship at The University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Mechanics of Solids, Structures, and Materials, earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science from Rice University in 2007, and received his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics from the University of Patras, Greece, in 2002. His research expertise spans digital engineering, data-driven modeling, mechanics of materials, advanced manufacturing, and nondestructive evaluation.