ABOUT
David
McDowell
Regents' Professor Emeritus
Member/Fellow:
ASM Inter., ASME, TMS, MRS, TMS
david.mcdowell@me.gatech.edu
404.894.5128
MRDC 4511

Regents’ Professor Emeritus Dave McDowell joined Georgia Tech in 1983. He served as Director of the Mechanical Properties Research Laboratory from 1992-2012. In August 2012 he was named Founding Director of the Institute for Materials (IMat), a Georgia Tech interdisciplinary research institute charged with cultivating cross-cutting collaborations in materials research and education and developing the materials innovation ecosystem. Serving as IMat Director through 2020, McDowell oversaw the development of centralized campus materials user facilities and broad efforts to develop and incorporate integrated materials data science and informatics approaches in materials research. He was named in 2019 as recipient of Georgia Tech’s Class of Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award, Georgia Tech’s highest annual award bestowed on a faculty member for sustained outstanding achievement in teaching, research, and service. 

Dr. McDowell currently serves on the editorial boards of npj:Computational Materials and Journal of Multiscale Modeling. He served as co-Editor of the International Journal of Fatigue from 2007-2020, the highest impact factor journal in this research subject. He is a Fellow and Past President (2002) of the Society for Engineering Science, and is a Fellow of ASME, TMS, and ASM International. In 2020 he was elected as an Honorary Member of AIME. In 2023 he was awarded the Paul C. Paris Gold Medal from the International Congress on Fracture, as well as the ASME Worcester Reed Warner Medal for outstanding contributions to the permanent literature of engineering.

Students:
Selected publications
  1. McDowell, D.L., “Simulation-Assisted Materials Design for the Concurrent Design of Materials and Products,” JOM, Vol. 59, No. 9, 2007, pp. 21-25.
  2. McDowell, D.L. and Olson, G.B., “Concurrent Design of Hierarchical Materials and Structures,” Scientific Modeling and Simulation (CMNS), Vol. 15, No. 1, 2008, pp. 207-240.
  3. McDowell, D.L., “Viscoplasticity of Heterogeneous Metallic Materials,” Materials Science and Engineering R: Reports, Vol. 62, Issue 3, 2008, pp. 67-123.
  4. Derlet, P.M., Gumbsch, P., Hoagland, R., Li, J., McDowell, D.L., Van Swygenhoven, H., and Wang, J., “Atomistic simulations of dislocations in confined volumes,” MRS Bulletin, Vol. 34, No. 3, 2009, pp. 184-189.
  5. Przybyla, C., Prasannavenkatesan, R., Salajegheh, N. and McDowell, D.L., “Microstructure-Sensitive Modeling of High Cycle Fatigue,” International Journal of Fatigue, Special issue on Fatigue of Materials: Competing Failure Modes and Variability in Fatigue Life, ed. K S. Ravi Chandran et al. Vol. 32, No. 3, 2010, pp. 512-525.   
  6. Przybyla, C.P. and McDowell, D.L., “Microstructure-Sensitive Extreme Value Probabilities for High Cycle Fatigue of Ni-Base Superalloy IN100,” International Journal of Plasticity, Vol. 26, No. 3, 2010, pp. 372-394.  
  7. Spearot, D.E. and McDowell, D.L., “Atomistic Modeling of Grain Boundaries and Dislocation Processes in Metallic Polycrystalline Materials,” ASME Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology, Vol. 131, No. 4, 2009, pp. 0412041-0412049.
  8. McDowell, D.L. and Dunne, F.P.E., “Microstructure-Sensitive Computational Modeling of Fatigue Crack Formation,” International Journal of Fatigue, Special Issue on Emerging Frontiers in Fatigue, Vol. 32, No. 9, 2010, pp. 1521-1542.
  9. McDowell, D.L., “A Perspective on Trends in Multiscale Plasticity,” International Journal of Plasticity, special issue in honor of David L. McDowell, Vol. 26, No. 9, 2010, pp. 1280-1309.
  10. Austin, R.A. and McDowell, D.L., “A Viscoplastic Constitutive Model for Polycrystalline fcc Metals at Very High Rates of Deformation,” International Journal of Plasticity, Vol. 27, No. 1, 2011, pp. 1-24.
  11. Xiong, L., Tucker, G.J., McDowell, D.L., and Chen, Y., “Coarse-Grained Atomistic Simulation of Dislocations,” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Vol. 59, 2011, pp. 160-177.
  12. McDowell, D.L., Ghosh, S., and Kalidindi, S.R., “Representation and Computational Structure-Property Relations of Random Media,” JOM, Vol. 63, No. 3, 2011, pp. 45-51.
  13. Przybyla, C.P. and McDowell, D.L., “Microstructure-Sensitive Extreme Value Probabilities of High Cycle Fatigue for Surface vs. Subsurface Crack Formation in Duplex Ti-6Al-4V,” Acta Materialia, Vol. 60, No. 1, 2012, pp. 293-305.
  14. Xiong, L., Deng, Q., Tucker, G.J., McDowell, D.L., and Chen, Y., “A Concurrent Scheme for Passing Dislocations from Atomistic to Continuum Regions,” Acta Materialia, Vol. 60, No. 3, 2012, pp. 899-913.
  15. Xiong, L., Deng, Q., Tucker, G.J., McDowell, D.L., and Chen, Y., “Coarse-Grained Atomistic Simulations of Dislocations in Al, Ni and Cu Crystals,” International Journal of Plasticity, Vol. 38, 2012, pp. 86-101.
  16. Castelluccio, G.M. and McDowell, D.L., “Assessment of Small Fatigue Crack Growth Driving Forces in Single Crystals with and without Slip Bands, Int. Journal of Fracture, Vol. 176, No. 1, 2012, pp. 49-64.
  17. Panchal, J.H., Kalidindi, S.R., and McDowell, D.L., “Key Computational Modeling Issues in ICME,” Computer-Aided Design, Vol. 45, No. 1, 2013, pp. 4–25.
  18. McDowell, D.L., “Incentivize Sharing,” a comment on Sharing Data in Materials Science, Nature, Vol. 503, No. 7477, Nov. 2013, pp. 463-464. http://www.nature.com/news/technology-sharing-data-in-materials-science-1.14224
  19. Narayanan, S., McDowell, D.L., and Zhu, T., “Crystal Plasticity Model for BCC Iron Atomistically Informed by Kinetics of Correlated Kinkpair Nucleation on Screw Dislocations,” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Vol. 65, 2014, pp. 54-68.
  20. Mayeur, J.R. and McDowell, D.L., “A Comparison of Gurtin-Type and Micropolar Single Crystal Plasticity with Generalized Stresses,” International Journal of Plasticity, Vol. 57, 2014, pp. 29-51.
  21. Castelluccio, G.M., Musinski, W.D. and McDowell, D.L., “Recent Developments in Assessing Microstructure-Sensitive Early Stage Fatigue of Polycrystals,” Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science, Vol. 18, No. 4, 2014, pp. 180-187.
  22. Castelluccio, G.M., and McDowell, D.L., "Mesoscale Modeling of Microstructurally Small Fatigue Cracks in Metallic Polycrystals," Mat. Sci. Eng. A, Vol. 598, No. 26, 2014, pp. 34-55.
  23. Patra, A., Zhu, T. and McDowell, D.L., “Constitutive equations for modeling non-Schmid effects in single crystal bcc-Fe at low and ambient temperatures,” Int. J. Plasticity, Vol. 59, 2014, pp. 1-14.
  24. Lloyd, J.T., Clayton, J.D., Austin, R.A., and McDowell, D.L., “Plane wave simulation of elastic-viscoplastic single crystals,” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Vol. 69, 2014, pp. 14-32.
  25. Lloyd, J.T., Clayton, J.D., Becker, R.C., and McDowell, D.L., “Simulation of Shock Wave Propagation in Single Crystal and Polycrystalline Aluminum,” Int. J. Plasticity, Vol. 60, 2014, pp. 118-144.
  26. McDowell, D.L. and Liu, Z.-K., “The Penn State-Georgia Tech CCMD: Ushering in the ICME Era,” Integrating Materials and Manufacturing Innovation, TMS, 3(1), 2014, p. 28.
  27. Xu, S., Che, R., Xiong, L., Chen, Y. and McDowell, D.L., “A Quasistatic Implementation of the Concurrent Atomistic-Continuum Method for FCC Crystals, International Journal of Plasticity, Vol. 72, 2015, pp. 91-126.
  28. Castelluccio, G.M. and McDowell, D.L., “Microstructure and Mesh Sensitivities of Mesoscale Surrogate Driving Force Measures for Transgranular Fatigue Cracks in Polycrystals,” Materials Science and Engineering A, Vol. 639, 2015, pp. 626-639.
  29. Mayeur, J.R. and McDowell, D.L., “Micropolar Crystal Plasticity Simulations of Particle Strengthening,” Modeling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, Vol. 23, No. 6, 2015, p. 065007.
  30. Pineau, A., Antolovich, S.D., McDowell, D.L., and Busso, E.P., “Failure of Metals II:  Fatigue,” Acta Materialia, Vol. 109, No. 1, 2016, pp. 484–507.
  31. Lloyd, J.T., Clayton, J.D., Austin, R.A., and McDowell, D.L., “Shock Compression Modeling of Metallic Single Crystals: Comparison of Finite Difference, Steady Wave, and Analytical Solutions,” Advanced Modeling and Simulation in Engineering Sciences, Vol.2, No. 14, 2015, doi:10.1186/s40323-015-0036-6.
  32. Tschopp, M.A., Coleman, S.P., and McDowell, D.L., “Symmetric and Asymmetric Tilt Grain Boundary Structure and Energy in Cu and Al (and transferability to other FCC metals),” Integrating Materials and Manufacturing Innovation, 2015, 4:11, DOI 10.1186/s40192-015-0040-1.
  33. Xu, S., Xiong, L., Chen, Y. and McDowell, D.L., “Sequential slip transfer of mixed character dislocations across Σ3 coherent twin boundary in FCC metals: A concurrent atomistic-continuum study,” npj Computational Materials 2, 15016, 2016, doi:10.1038/npjcompumats.2015.16.
  34. Patra, A. and McDowell, D.L., “Crystal Plasticity Investigation of the Microstructural Factors Influencing Dislocation Channeling in a Model Irradiated BCC Material,” Acta Materialia, Vol. 100, 2016, pp. 364-376.
  35. McDowell, D.L. and Kalidindi, S.R., “The Materials Innovation Ecosystem: A Key Enabler for the Materials Genome Initiative,” MRS Bulletin, Vol. 41, 2016, pp. 326-335.
  36. Castelluccio, G.M., Musinski, W.D., and McDowell, D.L., “Computational Micromechanics of Microstructures in the HCF-VHCF Regimes,” International Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 93(2), 2016, pp. 387-396.
  37. Kalidindi, S.R., Medford, A.J., and McDowell, D.L., “Vision for Data and Informatics in the Future Materials Innovation Ecosystem,” JOM, Vol. 68, No. 8, 2016, pp. 2126-2137.
  38. Xu, S., Xiong, L., Chen, Y., and McDowell, D.L., “Validation of the Concurrent Atomistics-Continuum Method on Screw Dislocation/Stacking Fault Interactions,” Crystals, Vol. 7, No. 5, 2017, p. 120.
  39. Chen, X., Xiong, L., McDowell, D.L., and Chen, Y., “Effects of Phonons on Mobility of Dislocations and Dislocation Arrays,” Scripta Materialia, Vol. 137, 2017, pp. 22-26.
  40. Sobie, C., Capolungo, L., McDowell, D.L., Martinez, E., “Scale Transition using Dislocation Dynamics and the Nudged Elastic Band Method,” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Vol. 105, 2017, pp. 161-178.
  41. Sobie, C., McDowell, D.L., Martinez, E., Capolungo, L., “Thermal Activation of Dislocations in Large Scale Obstacle Bypass,” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Vol. 105, 2017, pp. 150-160.
  42. Castelluccio, G.M and McDowell, D.L., “Mesoscale Cyclic Crystal Plasticity with Dislocation Substructures,” International Journal of Plasticity, Vol. 98, 2017, pp. 1-26.
  43. Priddy, M.W., Paulson, N.H., Kalidindi, S.R., and McDowell, D.L., “Strategies for Rapid Parametric Assessment of Microstructure-Sensitive Fatigue for HCP Polycrystals, International Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 104, 2017, pp. 231-242.
  44. Kern, P.C., Priddy, M.W., Ellis, B.D., and McDowell, D.L., “pyDEM: A Generalized Implementation of the Inductive Design Exploration Method,” Materials & Design, Vol. 134, 2017, pp. 293-300.
  45. Chen, X., Li, W., Diaz, A., Li, Y., McDowell, D.L., Chen, Y., “Recent Progress in the Concurrent Atomistic-Continuum (CAC) Method and Its Application in Phonon Transport,” MRS Communications, Vol. 7, No. 4, 2017, pp. 785-797.
  46. Tallman, A., Swiler, L.P., Wang, Y., and McDowell, D.L., “Reconciled Top-down and Bottom-up Hierarchical Multiscale Calibration of bcc Fe Crystal Plasticity,” International Journal for Computer Methods in Engineering, 15(6), 2017, pp. 1–19.
  47. Xu, S., Rigelesaiyin, J., Xiong, L., Chen, Y., and McDowell, D.L., “Generalized Continua Concepts in Coarse-Graining Atomistic Simulations,” Springer Special Volume in Memoriam to Prof. G. Maugin, 2018, pp. 237-260. Springer International Publishing AG, H. Altenbach et al. (eds.), Generalized Models and Non-classical Approaches in Complex Materials 2, Advanced Structured Materials 90, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77504-3_12.
  48. Xu, S., Payne, T.G., Chen, H., Liu, Y., Xiong, L. Chen, Y. and McDowell, D.L., “pyCAC: The concurrent atomistic continuum simulator with a Python scripting interface,” MRS Journal of Materials Research, focused issue on Advanced Atomistic Algorithms in Materials Science, 1-15, doi:10.1557/jmr.2018.8.
  49. Diaz, A., McDowell, D.L., and Chen, Y., “The Limitations and Successes of Concurrent Dynamic Multiscale Modeling Methods at the Mesoscale,” Chapter 3, Springer Special Volume in Memoriam to Prof. G. Maugin, 2018, pp. 55-77, Springer International Publishing AG, H. Altenbach et al. (eds.), Generalized Models and Non-classical Approaches in Complex Materials 2, Advanced Structured Materials 90, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77504-3_3.
  50. Mayeur, J.R., McDowell, D.L., and Forest, S., “Micropolar Crystal Plasticity,” Handbook of Nonlocal Continuum Mechanics for Materials and Structures, edited by George Z. Voyiadjis, Springer International Publishing AG, 2018, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-22977-5_48-1.
  51. Forest, S., Mayeur, J.R., and McDowell, D.L., “Micromorphic Crystal Plasticity,” Handbook of Nonlocal Continuum Mechanics for Materials and Structures, edited by George Z. Voyiadjis, Springer, accepted January 2018.
  52. Paulson, N.H., Priddy, M.W., McDowell, D.L., and Kalidindi, S.R., “Data-Driven Reduced-Order Models for Ranking the High Cycle Fatigue Performance of Polycrystalline Microstructures,” Materials and Design, Vol. 154, No. 15, 2018, pp. 170-183.
  53. Paulson, N.H., Priddy, M.W., McDowell, D.L., Kalidindi, S.R., “Reduced-order microstructure-sensitive protocols to rank-order the transition fatigue resistance of polycrystalline microstructures,” International Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 119, 2019, pp. 1-10.
  54. Tiwari, S., Tucker, G.J. and McDowell, D.L., “The Effect of Hydrostatic Pressure on the Shear Deformation of Cu Symmetric Tilt Interfaces,” International Journal of Plasticity, Vol. 118, 2019, pp. 87-104.
  55. Li, Y., Li, W., Diaz, A., Chen, X., McDowell, D.L., and Chen, Y., “Phonon Spectrum and Phonon Focusing in Atomistic and Coarse-Grained Simulations,” Computational Materials Science, Vol. 162, 2019, pp. 21-32.
  56. Arróyave, R., and McDowell, D.L., “Systems Approaches to Materials Design: Past, Present and Future,” Annual Reviews of Materials Research, Vol. 49, 2019.
  57. Tallman, A.E., Swiler, L.P., Wang, Y., and McDowell, D.L., “Hierarchical Top-down Bottom-up Calibration with Consideration for Uncertainty and Inter-scale Discrepancy of Peierls Stress of bcc Fe,” Modeling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, 27, 2019, 064004.
  58. Xu, S., McDowell, D.L. and Beyerlein, I., “Sequential Obstacle Interactions with Dislocations in a Planar Array,” Acta Materialia, Vol. 174, 2019, pp. 160-172.
  59. Tallman, A.E., Stopka, K.S., Swiler, L.P., Wang, Y., Kalidindi, S.R., and McDowell, D.L., “Gaussian Process-Driven Adaptive Sampling for Reduced Order Modeling of Texture Effects in Polycrystalline Alpha-Ti,” JOM Vol. 71, 2019, pp. 2646-2656.
  60. Chen, Y., Shabanov, S., and McDowell, D.L., “Concurrent Atomistic-Continuum Modeling and Simulation of Crystalline Materials,” Journal of Applied Physics, 126, 101101, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5099653.
  61. Whelan, G. and McDowell, D.L., “Uncertainty Quantification in ICME Workflows for Fatigue Critical Computational Modeling,” Engng. Fracture Mechanics, special issue on the Digital Twin, Vol. 220, No. 15, 2019, 106673.
  62. Stopka K.S. and McDowell, D.L., “Microstructure-sensitive computational estimates of driving forces for surface vs. subsurface fatigue crack formation in duplex Ti-6Al-4V and Al 7075-T6,” JOM, Vol. 72, No. 1, 2020, pp. 28-38.
  63. Stopka, K.S. and McDowell, D.L., “Microstructure-Sensitive Computational Multiaxial Fatigue of Al 7075-T6 and Duplex Ti-6Al-4V,” International Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 133, 2020, p. 105460.
  64. Chu, K., Foster, M.E., Sills, R.B., Zhou, X., Zhu, T., and McDowell, D.L., “Temperature and Composition Dependent Mobility of Screw Dislocations in Fe0.7NixCr0.3-x Austenitic Stainless Steels from Large Scale Molecular Dynamics Simulationa,” npj Computational Materials 6, 2020, 179; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41524-020-00452-x.
  65. McDowell, D.L., “Gaps and Barriers to the Successful Integration and Adoption of Practical Materials Informatics Tools and Workflows,“ JOM, Vol. 73, 2020, pp. 138-148. 
  66. Whelan, G. and McDowell, D.L., “Machine Learning Enabled Uncertainty Quantification for Modeling Fatigue Critical Engineering Alloys Using an ICME Workflow,” Integr Mater Manuf Innov, TMS, Vol. 9, 2020, pp. 376-393.. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40192-020-00192-2
  67. Muth, A., John, R., Pilchak, A., Kalidindi, S.R., and McDowell, D.L., “Analysis of Fatigue Indicator Parameters for Ti-6Al-4V Microstructures using Extreme Value Statistics in the HCF Regime,” International Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 145, 2021, p. 106096.
  68. Yaghoobi, M., Stopka, K.S., Lakshmanan, A., Sundararaghavan, V., Allison, J.E., and McDowell, D.L., “PRISMS-Fatigue: A General Framework for Fatigue Analysis in Polycrystalline Metals and Alloys using the Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Method, npj:Computational Materials, Vol. 7:38, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41524-021-00506-8
  69. Zirkle, T., Costello, L.R., Zhu, T., and McDowell, D.L., “Modeling Dislocation-Mediated Hydrogen Transport and Trapping in FCC Metals,” special issue of ASME Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology in honor of Hussein Zbib, 2021, pp. 1-54 (accepted manuscript posted May 06, 2021. doi:10.1115/1.4051147)
  70. Zirkle, T., Costello, L., and McDowell, D.L., “Crystal plasticity modeling of hydrogen and hydrogen-related defects in initial yield and plastic flow of single crystal stainless steel 316L,” Metall MaterTransa A, 2021, pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-021-06357-8.
  71. Xiong, L., Chen, Y., Beyerlein, I.J., McDowell, D.L., “Multiscale Modeling of the Interface-mediated Mechanical, Thermal, and Mass Transport in Heterogeneous Materials: Perspectives and Applications,” Journal of Materials Research, accepted June 2021.
  72. Chen, Y., Shabanov, S., and McDowell, D.L., Erratum: “Concurrent atomistic-continuum modeling of crystalline materials” [J. Appl. Phys. 126, 101101 (2019)]. Appl. Phys. 130, 019903 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0058089
  73. Zirkle, T., Zhu, T., and McDowell, D.L.,”Micromechanical Crystal Plasticity Back Stress Evolution within FCC Dislocation Substructure,” Int. J. Plasticity 145, 2021, 103082.
Research Interests
  • Microstructure-sensitive computational approaches to variability in fatigue of advanced alloy systems, including extreme value responses such as HCF and VHCF
  • Atomistic simulations of dislocation nucleation and slip transfer reactions at grain boundaries, including near equilibrium and non-equilibrium structures
  • Competing deformation modes for nanocrystalline materials; grain size distribution effects on yield and inelastic flow
  • Constitutive relations for finite strain inelasticity and defect field mechanics in generalized continuum theories for evolving microstructure of single and polycrystals
  • Concurrent (coarse-grained) atomistic and hierarchical continuum multiscale modeling approaches
  • Dynamic/shock plasticity of metals
  • Uncertainty quantification in multiscale plasticity of metals
  • Principles and approaches for decision-based, simulation-informed materials design