Amit Acharya

Professor

Bio

Amit Acharya is a professor in the Mechanics, Materials, and Computing research group. His research interests are in the areas of continuum mechanics, theoretical materials science, and applied mathematics and looks at how structural imperfections, or defects, in crystalline materials interact and evolve. Currently, his work focuses on theoretical and computational defect mechanics in crystalline, liquid crystalline, and metallic glass systems, coarse-graining of nonlinear time-dependent systems, and the interplay of differential geometry and structural mechanics in the design and actuation of thin sheets.

Acharya received his PhD in Theoretical & Applied Mechanics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1994. Subsequently, he completed a post-doctoral position at the University of Pennsylvania.

From 1995-1998, he took a position as a senior research engineer in the ABAQUS Std Development group at HKS, Inc. in Providence, RI (now Simulia, Dassault Systemes). While there, Acharya was the lead developer of the *Hysteresis nonlinear viscoelastic material model and the S4 fully integrated finite strain shell element. These are still in use in the ABAQUS general-purpose FE code. Between 1998-2000, Acharya was a research scientist at the DOE-ASCI funded Center for Simulation of Advanced Rockets at UIUC before joining CMU in 2000.

Courtesy Appointment: MSE 

Education

PhD 1994 - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
MS 1991 - University of Utah
BS 1988 - Indian School of Mines, India

Research

Research Group: MCM

• Continuum dislocation mechanics
• Coarse-graining of nonlinear evolutionary systems
• Computational modeling of elastic and inelastic behavior of solids
• Nonlinear shell theory
• Fluid-structure interaction, including mass transfer

Recent Publications

Full Publications List

• Uditnarayan Kouskiya, Amit Acharya Hidden convexity in the heat, linear transport, and Euler’s rigid body equations: A computational approach, to appear in Quarterly of Applied Mathematics, 2023.

• Amit Acharya, Irene Fonseca, Likhit Ganedi, Kerrek Stinson Vector field models for nematic disclinations, to appear in Journal of Nonlinear Science 2023.

• Amit Acharya A dual variational principle for nonlinear dislocation dynamics, to appear in Journal of Elasticity, 2023.

• Abhishek Arora, Rajat Arora, Amit Acharya (2023) Interface-dominated plasticity and kink bands in metallic nanolaminates, Crystals, 13, 828.

• Saptarshi Saha, Amit Acharya, Gerald J. Wang  TADA: The Topology-Accommodating Direction Assignment Algorithm for Liquid Crystals, to appear in Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, 2022.
• Amit Acharya, Marshall Slemrod (2023) Existence, uniqueness, and long-time behavior of linearized field dislocation dynamics, Quarterly of Applied Mathematics, LXXXI (2), 247-258.
• Amit Acharya (2023) Variational principles for nonlinear PDE systems via duality, Quarterly of Applied Mathematics, LXXXI, 127-140. Article electronically published on September 26, 2022.
• Amit Acharya, Luiza Angheluta, and Jorge Vinals (2022) Elasticity versus phase field driven motion in the Phase Field Crystal model, in the Focus Issue on Phase Field Crystal Modelling in Materials Science, Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, 30, 064005.
• Abhishek Arora, Rajat Arora, Amit Acharya (2022) Mechanics of micropillar confined thin film plasticity, Acta Materialia, 238, 118192.
• Janusz Ginster, Amit Acharya (2022) Rotations with constant curl are constant, Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis, 244, 761-777.
• Amit Acharya (2021) An action for nonlinear dislocation dynamics,  Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 161, 104811.
• Léo Morin, Amit Acharya (2021) Analysis of a model of field crack mechanics for brittle materials, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 386, 114061.
• Chiqun Zhang, Amit Acharya, Alan C. Newell, Shankar C. Venkataramani (2021) Computing with non-orientable defects: nematics, smectics and natural patterns, Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena, 417, 132828.
• Amit Acharya (2020) A possible link between brittle and ductile failure by viewing fracture as a topological defect, Comptes Rendus Mécanique, 348(4), 275-284.

Honors and Awards

• The Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship. Inaugural class (2022)
• Visiting Professorship with the Instituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica Francesco Severi (INdAM). Univeristy of Pavia, Italy (2016)
• Rosi and Max Varon Visiting Professorship. Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel (2015)
• Visiting Professorship of the Leverhulme Trust. University of Bath, U.K. (2015)

Courses

• 12-231 Solid Mechancis
• 12-335 Soil Mechanics
• 12-758 Intro to Continuum Mechanics Nonlinear Elastic & Structural Mechanics