Seminar Schedule – Fall 2019

Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Time: 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Place: ASE 2.134

On the Interaction between Mechanics and Chemistry: Two Studies in Electrochemical Energy Storage

Professor Pradeep Guduru, Brown University

Interaction between mechanical fields (stress, strain,�) and chemical phenomena is familiar in a number of problems in mechanics of materials. Examples include stress corrosion cracking, dislocation interaction with its local environment, the role of stress in microstructure evolution in alloys, etc. The basic idea is that the contribution of the mechanical fields to the free energy and the chemical potential of certain species can tip the energy landscape to influence the chemical reaction rates in ways that can have practical implications. In this talk, two examples will be presented in exploring the mechanics-chemistry coupling in the context of electrochemical energy storage: (i) the role of the mechanical behavior of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) in the performance of electrode materials and (ii) the role of stress in the propagation of phase boundaries in electrode materials. In the former, an experimental and modeling effort will be presented to characterize the mechanical behavior of SEI and its implications for surface roughening instabilities during operation of energy storage devices. The latter presents an experimental technique to characterize the velocity of moving phase boundaries in electrode materials by means of picosecond ultrasonics. A computational model based on a modified Cahn-Hilliard formulation is implemented to analyze the experimental results and extract the relevant kinetic parameters.

About the Speaker

Pradeep Guduru received Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Sri Venkateswara University (Tirupati, India) and Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore, India). He received his PhD in Aeronautics from California Institute of Technology in 2001. Subsequently he joined the Division of Engineering at Brown University as a postdoctoral research associate and was appointed as an assistant professor of Engineering in 2002. He has been an associate professor of Engineering since 2008 and the James R. Rice Associate Professor of Engineering since January 2009.

For further information, please contact Dr. Ravi-Chandar at ravi@utexas.edu or (512) 471-4213.