Dr. Richard Becker Instructor Civil and Mechanical Engineering richard.becker [at] westpoint.edu About Education Research & Publications Dr. Richard Becker began simulations of material response with his MS thesis work on micromechanical modeling of ductile void growth at the US Steel Research Laboratory in 1982. He continued with modeling and experimental work on ductile fracture at Brown University where he received his Ph.D. in Engineering. Following Brown, he was at the Alcoa Technical Center for 12 years pursuing micro-mechanical modeling of crystallographic texture evolution and anisotropy, thermo-mechanical process modeling, and constitutive model development and implementation. Rich went to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1999 where he worked on both the Integrated Codes and the Physics and Engineering Materials aspects of the Advanced Supercomputing Initiative. These efforts involved algorithm and code development, and multi-scale model development and validation for strength and fracture models. Rich joined the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory in 2009 where he has continued research on material behavior at multiple length scales and development and implementation of constitutive models in large-scale hydrocodes for terminal ballistic applications. Ph.D. - Brown University M.SC - Brown University M.S. - University of Pittsburgh B.S. - University of Pittsburgh Research Interests Computational material modeling, crystal plasticity, microstructure evolution, phase transformations, ductile fracture, deformation process modeling, and computational algorithms. All with an intent for Army applications. Current Research Rich is at USMA on temporary assignment from DEVCOM Army Research Labs. He is continuing work for the Physics of Soldier Protection to Defeat Evolving Threats program where he has using physics-based material models in large-scale computations to examine the synergistic interplay between the ceramic and composite backing of novel body armor panels under ballistic threat. Related to this and other applications, Rich is continuing development of an Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene fiber composite model specifically accounting for the shear mechanisms and highly dissipative response of the matrix materials. He is also pursuing formulation of constitutive relations for high-strength metals with a particular focus on capturing strain localization as a precursor to failure. Selected Publications Crone, J.C., Knap J. and Becker R., "Multiscale modeling of 3D nano-architected materials under large deformations," Int. J. Solids Struct. Vol. 252, 2022, 111839. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2022.111839Becker, R and Callaghan, K., “Void growth dependence on loading path and mean stress from large-scale numerical simulations,” Int. J. Plast., Vol. 134, 2020, pp. 102780 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijplas.2020.102780LLoyd, J.T., Matejunas, A.J., Becker, R., Walter, T.R., Priddy, M.W., and Kimberley, J., “Dynamic tensile failure of rolled magnesium: Simulations and experiments quantifying the fole of texture and second-phase particles,” Int. J. Plast., Vol. 114, 2019, pp. 174-195 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijplas.2018.11.002Leiter K.W., Barnes, B.C., Becker, R., and Knap, J., "Accelerated scale-bridging through adaptive surrogate model evaluation," J. Comp. Sci., Vol. 27, 2018, pp. 91-106. https:// doi.org/10.1016/ j.jocs.2018.04.010