Micro-Mechanics of Materials Group 

We are a group at the Dept of Metallurgical Engineering & Materials Science at IIT-Bombay since October 2016. Increasing degree of miniatursation of structures and devices has thrown open new observations in a material's response to different loading environments  that are starkly different from that of the bulk. Thin films, nanostructures, micro-electro-mechanical systems and several other systems belong to this category. The 'smaller is stronger' and 'inverse Hall-Petch effect' are typical size effects that occur when the external surface or internal interface shrinks in size. Brittle materials become more damage tolerant while ductile materials tend to become increasingly brittle at small dimensions. Our endeavor is to understand material's mechanical behavior at such shrinking external and internal length scales to identify these cross-over regimes. For this, we develop in-situ micromechanics tools and geometries to test and observe the deformation and fracture micro-mechanisms of materials. Further, we use finite element simulation tools to design interface architectures that can enhance damage tolerance in systems. You can find an example of the kind of work that we do here and there;) Know more about the group here, and at IITB's Techfest 2022 video here.