Welcome to Modeling Materials!

Welcome to Modeling Materials, a website dedicated to the theoretical modeling and simulation of materials from the atomic scale to the macroscopic.

This website accompanies the books Modeling Materials written by Ellad B. Tadmor and Ronald E. Miller, and Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics written by Tadmor and Miller together with Ryan S. Elliott, both published by Cambridge University Press. The website also provides information on related short courses offered by Tadmor and Miller. (See menu of options above.)

Although to the naked eye technological materials like ceramics, metals and semiconductors appear uniform and static, they actually possess structure on many different length scales and incorporate dynamic processes that occur on many different time scales. This is analogous to the pocket watch shown on the right whose smooth surface and uniformly rotating dials hide the great complexity of its internal movement.

The complexity of material structure makes modeling materials a challenging and exciting enterprise. Depending on the question being asked, researchers use methods ranging from atomistics where the material is modeled as a collection of particles to continuum mechanics where it is approximated as a smooth infinitely-divisible medium. Modern approaches mix both extremes in so-called multiscale methods.

The books “Modeling Materials” and “Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics” provide a unified, comprehensive, and particularly clear introduction to the theory underlying materials modeling and simulation at all scales. The books are stand-alone but designed to work together and are suitable for anyone with a basic undergraduate education in engineering, science or mathematics.