Our research paper “Elucidating the impact of microstructure on mechanical properties of phase-segregated polyurea: Finite element modeling of molecular dynamics derived microstructures” is now published in Mechanics of Materials. This study was led by Dr. Steven Yang, who recently completed his PhD in the lab, in collaboration with Dr. Stephanie Rosenbloom and Prof. Brett Fors from Cornell Chemistry. We developed a modeling framework to uncover how the phase-segregated nanostructure of polyurea influences its mechanical properties. This work integrates a wide range of methodologies, including molecular dynamics and finite element simulations, constitutive theory, and both mechanical and X-ray scattering experiments.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mechmat.2023.104863