Solid Mechanics Research Group

Welcome

Welcome to the Solid Mechanics Group
at Iowa State University

Welcome to the research website for the Solid Mechanics Research Group at Iowa State University.

The discipline of solid mechanics is concerned with determining how structural materials respond to external loading, and – often – predicting the reliability and safety of the materials in their environments. Materials are uniquely complex in that they exhibit vastly different behaviors at different scales. At the nanometer scale, they behave as lattices of atoms or, perhaps, chains of polymer. At the mesoscale, they exhibit features, such as grain boundaries, that act as key players in mechanical processes. At the application scale, these microscopic behaviors present as behaviors that we all know and understand: plasticity, viscoelasticity, fracture, etc. Understanding this atoms-to-applications picture is a grand challenge in solid mecahnics.

Our group uses the latest computational methods to develop new tools to enable better simulation of solid mechanics. We are interested in a broad range of applications, ranging from solid rocket propellant to asteroid-satellite impact.

We employ high performance computational techniques combined with rigorous theoretical and applied mechanics to develop new methods for materials simulation that enable predictive modeling for materials analysis and design

Computational solid mechanics lies at the intersection of mechanics, mathematics, materials science, physics, and high performance computing. We aim to produce methods that are theoretically sound, codes that efficient, and results that are believable. Are you interested in joining us? Please check out our page on joining the solid mechanics group.

Recent News

		[{"id":1558,"link":"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/predicting-grain-boundary-void-nucleation-sites-in-microstructure-during-shock-loading-with-convolutional-neural-networks-our-work-appears-in-acta-materialia\/","name":"predicting-grain-boundary-void-nucleation-sites-in-microstructure-during-shock-loading-with-convolutional-neural-networks-our-work-appears-in-acta-materialia","thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solids.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1-s2.0-S135964542600251X-ga1.jpg?fit=301%2C116&ssl=1","alt":""},"title":"Predicting grain boundary void nucleation sites in microstructure during shock loading with convolutional neural networks - Our work appears in Acta Materialia","excerpt":"","content":"Results from our NSF-funded project, \"CAREER: A multichannel convolutional neural network framework for prediction of damage nucleation sites in microstructure\" have been published in Acta","author":{"name":"Brandon Runnels","link":"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/author\/brunnels\/"},"date":"Mar 30, 2026","dateGMT":"2026-03-30 13:32:40","modifiedDate":"2026-03-30 13:32:46","modifiedDateGMT":"2026-03-30 13:32:46","commentCount":"0","commentStatus":"open","categories":{"coma":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/category\/publications\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Publications<\/a>","space":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/category\/publications\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Publications<\/a>"},"taxonomies":{"post_tag":""},"readTime":{"min":1,"sec":24},"status":"publish"},{"id":1532,"link":"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/alamo-paper-published-in-joss\/","name":"alamo-paper-published-in-joss","thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solids.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/joss.png?fit=650%2C249&ssl=1","alt":""},"title":"Alamo paper published in JOSS","excerpt":"","content":"Our group's flagship code, Alamo, has now been published in the Journal of Open Source Software. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to Alamo, and","author":{"name":"Brandon Runnels","link":"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/author\/brunnels\/"},"date":"Dec 2, 2025","dateGMT":"2025-12-02 16:22:16","modifiedDate":"2025-12-02 16:22:23","modifiedDateGMT":"2025-12-02 16:22:23","commentCount":"0","commentStatus":"open","categories":{"coma":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/category\/publications\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Publications<\/a>","space":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/category\/publications\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Publications<\/a>"},"taxonomies":{"post_tag":""},"readTime":{"min":0,"sec":11},"status":"publish"},{"id":1520,"link":"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/society-of-engineering-science-2025\/","name":"society-of-engineering-science-2025","thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solids.group\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/PXL_20251014_012908391.jpg?fit=1666%2C1250&ssl=1","alt":""},"title":"Society of Engineering Science 2025","excerpt":"","content":"The Solid Mechanics Research Group attended the Society of Engineering Science Annual Technical Meeting (SES 2025) in Atlanta, Georgia, October 12\u201315. Group members: Nihal Pushkar,","author":{"name":"Brandon Runnels","link":"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/author\/brunnels\/"},"date":"Oct 16, 2025","dateGMT":"2025-10-16 16:50:00","modifiedDate":"2025-11-21 16:51:09","modifiedDateGMT":"2025-11-21 16:51:09","commentCount":"0","commentStatus":"open","categories":{"coma":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/category\/conferences\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Conferences<\/a>","space":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/category\/conferences\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Conferences<\/a>"},"taxonomies":{"post_tag":""},"readTime":{"min":0,"sec":20},"status":"publish"},{"id":1516,"link":"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/smrg-welcomes-new-phd-students\/","name":"smrg-welcomes-new-phd-students","thumbnail":{"url":false,"alt":false},"title":"SMRG welcomes new PhD students","excerpt":"","content":"The Solid Mechanics group welcomes Caleb Munger (BS 2025, Rose Hulman) and Jenna Stocker (BS 2026 ISU) in Fall 2025. Welcome Caleb and Jenna!","author":{"name":"Brandon Runnels","link":"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/author\/brunnels\/"},"date":"Sep 1, 2025","dateGMT":"2025-09-01 16:40:16","modifiedDate":"2025-11-21 16:42:18","modifiedDateGMT":"2025-11-21 16:42:18","commentCount":"0","commentStatus":"open","categories":{"coma":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/category\/people\/\" rel=\"category tag\">People<\/a>","space":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/category\/people\/\" rel=\"category tag\">People<\/a>"},"taxonomies":{"post_tag":""},"readTime":{"min":0,"sec":7},"status":"publish"},{"id":1409,"link":"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/atomistic-informed-phase-field-modeling-of-magnesium-twin-growth-by-disconnections-our-work-appears-in-acta-materialia\/","name":"atomistic-informed-phase-field-modeling-of-magnesium-twin-growth-by-disconnections-our-work-appears-in-acta-materialia","thumbnail":{"url":false,"alt":false},"title":"Atomistic-informed phase field modeling of magnesium twin growth by disconnections - Our work appears in Acta Materialia","excerpt":"","content":"Recent work, in collaboration with ETH Zurich, has been published in Acta Materialia. DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.actamat.2024.120564 Abstract: The nucleation and propagation of disconnections play an essential","author":{"name":"Brandon Runnels","link":"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/author\/brunnels\/"},"date":"Jan 8, 2025","dateGMT":"2025-01-08 03:39:01","modifiedDate":"2025-01-08 03:39:07","modifiedDateGMT":"2025-01-08 03:39:07","commentCount":"0","commentStatus":"open","categories":{"coma":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/category\/publications\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Publications<\/a>","space":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/category\/news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">News<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solids.group\/category\/publications\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Publications<\/a>"},"taxonomies":{"post_tag":""},"readTime":{"min":1,"sec":17},"status":"publish"}]

Our sponsors

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of our sponsors, whose contributions are instrumental in advancing our work in solid mechanics research. Their partnership enables us to push the boundaries of innovation and discovery.