Guest Lecture by Prof. Kenjiro Terada

Prof. Kenjiro Terada, Ph.D., is a Japanese professor at Tohoku University (Sendai City, Japan), Department of Civil Engineering, renowned for his work in computational mechanics for heterogeneous materials and structures, numerical methods for multiscale and multiphysics problems, multi-stage hypercomplex disaster simulations, and topology optimization. With degrees from the University of Michigan and Nagoya University, he has held academic positions from assistant to professor, alongside early industry and research roles. He has authored over 150 peer-reviewed papers, delivered numerous invited and plenary lectures worldwide, and received prestigious honors such as the Kobayashi Medal and IACM Fellows Award. Prof. Terada has served in leading roles in international and national professional societies, sits on multiple editorial boards, and has organized major global conferences, establishing himself as a prominent figure in engineering and computational science.

He was a guest at the Institute of Structural Analysis at TU Dresden. The topic of his presentation was “Advanced material point methods for disaster simulations”

Abstract:

The presentation begins with a brief overview of the Material Point Method (MPM), followed by our recent advancements, particularly in the context of disaster simulations. Nine key enhancements are introduced across explicit MPM, semi-implicit MPM, a FEM– MPM hybrid scheme, and implicit MPM. These topics cover a wide range, including constitutive models for dry sand, improvements in computational efficiency, and hydromechanical coupling for both saturated and unsaturated soils — integrated with stabilized FEM and Nitsche’s method. Additionally, the Extended B-spline-based MPM (EBS-MPM) and the F-bar projection-enhanced EBS-MPM are presented, both of which are incorporated with the crack phase-field model to enable a smooth transition from diffusive to discrete cracking.

We thank Prof. Terada and all the participants!