Professor Raúl A. Radovitzky

Research

Professor Radovitzky’s research focuses on theoretical and computational studies of the response of engineered and biological materials and structures to extreme loading conditions such as produced by the detonation of explosive materials. Based on the understanding achieved, he develops material concepts and strategies to mitigate the damaging and injurious effects produced by such loading conditions.

Toward these ends, he combines the development and validation of constitutive material models and the formulation of numerical algorithms and their implementation as software tools suitable for large-scale computer simulation. These methods are tested and used to describe the requisite physical aspects to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms of damage and injury. When applicable, he also aims to develop analytical methods and simplified theories capturing the relevant physical phenomena in parametric formulae which facilitate optimization analysis without the need to recur to detailed but expensive computational models based on large-scale simulation.

One of the main motivations of his research program is to address the critical societal need to develop material systems providing increased protection to targets against blast attacks.  Equally significant is the need for lighter, stronger and yet more malleable and durable structural materials adapted to the challenges of the future of civilian air transportation and space exploration, new material concepts to supersede existing silicon-based technologies for electronic applications, among other equally challenging applications.

In the area of blast effects, his group has proposed a theory and computer models characterizing the impulsive loading produced by air blast waves on structures contemplating the fluid-structure interaction effect and the air compressibility. This theory and some of its extensions they are currently investigating, provide a rational basis for the conception of novel blast damage and injury mitigation strategies, and are currently being used by the research community for the design of material systems and structures for blast protection. He has also done work in the area of blast effects on humans which demonstrates that the primary effect of the blast wave produced by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) may lead to mild and moderate Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).