One of the curricula within the PhD program in Design Modelling and Simulation in Engineering is Computational Mechanics. Research activities in this field focus on the development of algorithms for the numerical simulation of engineering problems, including the analysis of complex physical phenomena and their representation through suitable mathematical models and governing equations.
To computationally model these problems, advanced numerical techniques are developed and employed, such as for example the well-known Finite Element Method (FEM) or Isogeometric Analysis (IgA), using both in-house and commercial software tools.
Research topics cover a wide range of applications, including classical civil engineering problems (e.g., instability phenomena in beams composed of repeated gyroid cells), fracture mechanics through phase-field modeling, bioengineering applications such as cardiac tissue electrophysiology, and acoustic engineering problems (e.g., numerical simulation of sound propagation in piezo-actuated media). Additional research activities focus on supporting additive manufacturing processes through numerical analyses, with particular attention to uncertainty quantification and the development of surrogate models based on thermomechanical simulations.