Jose E. Andrade: Seeing the World in a Grain of Sand
Granular materials are ubiquitous in nature and, after water, are the second most manipulated materials on earth. Deceivingly simple at the grain scale, these materials are composed of individual partiles that collectively display complex behavior controlling the onset of macroscopic phenomena, such as earthquakes, landslides and planetary morphology. This lecture will present new methods to characterize and model granular materials for terrestrial and extraterrestrial applications. With advanced X-ray tomography, we can obtain measurements at the grain scale that then can be used to construct predictive computational models for the study of earthquake-induced liquefactoin and landslides, and of samples returned from solar system bodies.
Jose E. Andrade is an associate professor of civil and mechanical engineering.
Learn More: http://www.geomechanics.caltech.edu
Presented By: Caltech Committee on Institute Programs