Group Members

Amir Hossein Mirzaei

Amir Hossein Mirzaei is a prospective Ph.D. student with expertise in the analysis of mechanical properties, specifically fatigue behavior, of composite materials. During his PhD thesis at the University of Alberta, he will focus on the development of advanced micromechanical fatigue fracture models for pipeline steels, and eventually bridge his model with the large-scale XFEM model to predict pipeline fatigue life and improve service reliability in the industry.



Amirhossein Iranmehr

Amirhossein is currently an MSc student at the University of Alberta; his research project focuses on the machine learning-assisted multi-scale fatigue fracture modelling of spiral welded pipelines. The objective is to study the fatigue failure in the spiral welded pipelines to provide an effective model to predict the fatigue-related crack nucleation and growth.



Burak Yilmaz

Burak Yilmaz is currently an MSc student at the University of Alberta, co-supervised by Dr. Mostafa Yakout, focusing on the development and utilization of a tensile split-Hopkinson pressure bar facility. His research involves conducting high-strain-rate tests on additively manufactured materials such as aluminum-Sc, Inconel alloys, Ti-6Al-4V, and high-temperature materials. Through these experiments, Burak aims to enhance the understanding of the mechanical properties of advanced materials under dynamic loading conditions, contributing to advancements in the field of materials science.



Cass (Haoyang) Li, Research Project Manager

Haoyang (Cass) is currently the research project manager of CDAM. Haoyang graduated in Oct 2019 with an MSc degree under the supervision of Dr. Hogan. His expertise is in both material science, including material characterization, failure analysis, and fracture mechanisms of brittle materials; and experimental mechanics, including rate-dependent compression and ballistic testing. Haoyang is familiar with multiple camera systems, Digital Image Correlation, and other experimental design components.



Hanieh Ahmadi

Hanieh Ahmadi is currently an MSc student at the University of Alberta and specializes in studying high-entropy alloys (HEAs). Her thesis focuses on investigating the mechanical behavior of medium entropy alloys (MEAs) for hydrogen applications, focusing on the hydrogen embrittlement mechanical behavior through experimental methods. She also has expressed a keen interest in exploring the mechanical properties of various materials, with a particular fascination for metals. Hanieh will have the opportunity to work on additive manufacturing of HEA/MEAs alongside her research, under the guidance of Prof. Hogan and Prof. Yakout.



Iman Sedighi

Iman is currently a PhD student at the University of Alberta, with experience on experimental characterization of materials, and a focus on fracture mechanics. Joining Dr. Hogan’s group since September 2023, his research project involves analyzing the fatigue crack growth in welded steel pipes. The objective of his research is to study these phenomena experimentally and numerically in different length scales.



Jie Zheng

Jie Zheng is a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta. His research mainly focuses on investigating fracture and fragmentation behaviours of advanced ceramics (e.g., boron carbide and alumina) under dynamic loading by using both the meso-scale and micro-scale methods. One of his goals is to estimate the fragment size and crack speed using advanced numerical methods.



Junhao Chang

Junhao is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Dr. Hogan at the University of Alberta. His research mainly concentrates on phase transformation (e.g., amorphization) of advanced ceramics (e.g., boron carbide) under dynamic loadings (i.e., shock). One of his current research goals is to build a comprehensive molecular dynamics unit cell model for the prediction of the fracture of boron carbide. After that, he will extend his model to study the dynamic behavior of advanced ceramics under complex loading conditions and damage states, and bridge into higher scale models that are studied in the group.



Kasra (Mohammad) Rezasefat, PDF

Kasra (Mohammad) Rezasefat obtained his PhD in mechanical engineering from Politecnico di Milano, where he studied the behavior of hybrid composites under extreme loadings. His primary research interests revolve around computational mechanics, multi-scale modeling, additive manufacturing, extreme loading conditions, and mechanical and materials design. He first joined the CDAM as a visiting scholar at the end of 2021.He is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher, investigating the stress-state- and strain-rate dependent behavior of additively manufactured ceramics. His work is expected to guide design of weight-optimized high-performance additively manufactured ceramic-based structures for use in vital Canadian industries.



Saman Sayahlatifi

Saman is a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta. Saman's PhD research project is dedicated to metal matrix composite (MMC) coatings, in which he wants to address the behavior of MMC coatings – Al-Alumina coatings, for instance – under different mechanical loading such as fatigue and wear through computational approaches. Indeed, he is focused on 3D microstructure-based FE simulation of MMC coatings subjected to loadings in field to provide an experimentally-validated FE framework to explore the effect of microstructure of these heterogeneous materials on their macro-scale behavior. Subsequently, this validated computational framework can result in an appropriate dataset for employing other predictive procedures with a much higher speed like machine learning (ML) or neural networks as a subset of ML methods.



Sara Sheikhi

Sara is a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta with expertise in Computational Solid Mechanics, Theoretical Methods, and Advanced Materials. The focus of her PhD thesis is to develop new interatomic potential for Boron Carbide using Machine Learning and Molecular Dynamics approaches, and bridge it into higher-scale models developed by other group members through implementing homogenization schemes.



Weihao Guo

Weihao is a current PhD student at the University of Alberta, with experience on the cutting force and thermal modeling and testing during the root canal preparation. His PhD thesis focuses on the morphological characterization, mechanical testing, and physics-based finite element modelling of skull bone. The objective of his research is to inform on the fundamental material behavior of human skull bone and helmet design under various loading conditions.



Zahra Zaiemyekeh

Zahra is currently pursuing her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Hogan in the CDAM Lab. The main focus of her PhD research is on mechanical behavior and failure of ceramics under a wide range of strain rates and stress states. Mechanical testing data obtained through experimental procedures in combination with employing Ultra-high-speed imaging and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is essential for providing insights into the mechanical behavior of ceramics across a variety of conditions and also transitional behavior between intact, damaged, and fragmented states. Moreover, these experimental verifications can lead to the development of robust models.

Alumni

Abhinav Badoni (BSc, Research Assistant) - May 2022 to Oct 2022



Amirhossein Mahdavi (PDF) - Sept 2018 to Aug 2019



Amir Hossein Saeedinia – 2020



Benhour Amirian (PhD, PDF) - Jan 2018 to Oct 2022



Brendan Koch (PhD, w/ internship at DRDC) - Sept 2016 to Aug 2021



Calvin Lo (MSc, Research Assistant) – April 2017 to Sept 2020



Chenwei Shao (PDF) - 2019 to 2021



Guriqbal Munday (MSc) - Sept 2017 to Aug 2019



Hannaneh Manafi Farid (MSc) – Sept 2020 to April 2023



Harshil Pisavadia (MSc) - Sept 2020 to Aug 2022



Kapil Bharadwaj Bhagavathula (PhD) - Sept 2016 to July 2021



Kyle (Luyue) Mao (MSc) - Sept 2021 to Jan 2024



Min Ji (PhD) - Sept 2021 to March 2022



Mohammad Parsazadeh (PDF) - Jan 2020 to July 2021



Piotr Nicewicz (MSc) - Sept 2017 to Aug 2019



Pouyan Motamedi (PDF) – Jan 2016 to Dec 2018



Sam Parcon (BSc, Research Assistant) – 2018 to 2019



Shuo (Alex) Yang (MSc) – Sept 2020 to Dec 2022



Víctor Juarros Cebrian (BSc, Research Assistant) – Sept 2020 to Dec 2020



Yogesh Kumar (MSc) – Sept 2022 to April 2024