The research unit is supported by three Mercator-Fellows who are internationally recognized in their fields. They advise the researchers not only in the individual sub-projects, but also across sub-projects.
Prof. Dr. Linda Stals, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Prof. Dr. Linda Stals is a senior researcher in applied mathematics and scientific computing at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. Her research area includes in particular parallel numerical algorithms and simulation software for supercomputers. She has authored fundamental work on adaptive and parallel multilevel methods, which are among the most powerful solvers for finite element discretizations. Her holistic approach to solving differential equations on hierarchically structured grids is particularly outstanding. The solution of partial differential equations with efficient multi-grid methods, adaptive grid refinement, scalable parallelization and load balancing are considered together. For maximum efficiency, all of these components must work closely together and be coordinated with each other.
Prof. Dr. Stals has further developed these methods for various problems up to application maturity and implemented them with modern software techniques. It will therefore support several sub-projects, in particular sub-projects 3, 5 and 6, in which research in high-performance computing and the solution of computationally intensive application problems play a special role.
Prof. Dr. Pavel Krakhmalev, Department of Engineering and Physics, Karlstad University, Sweden
Prof. Dr. Krahkmalev is a proven materials science expert with a focus on iron-based materials. In addition to his expertise in the field of grain growth of metastable phases and material characterization, his expert knowledge in relation to wear and defect analysis is of particular interest to the research group. In addition, through his numerous research activities in the field of laser material processing, especially in additive manufacturing, he also has experience with the extreme solidification conditions that are typical of the process, which greatly differentiates laser material processing from most other material processing methods. Therefore, Prof. Krakhmalev will support the research group primarily in material science issues. At the modeling level the entire research unit, but especially sub-projects 4 and 6, can benefit from him across sub-projects. On an experimental level, he will support sub-projects 1 and 2 with his expertise.
Prof. Dr. Jože Korelc, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Prof. Dr. Korelc is a renowned scientist in the field of computational mechanics. With his research, he stands for an interdisciplinary approach to computational mechanics as a synthesis of numerical methods and symbolic-algebraic systems and holds a leading position worldwide in the research field of the automation of computer-aided modelling. His research interests are in the areas of finite element technology, symbolic and algebraic systems design and automated programming, material modeling, structural stability and optimization, multiscale analysis, general coupled problems, and additive laser melting technology.
Prof. Dr. Korelc is the primary developer of the software systems AceGen and AceFEM for automated code generation and finite element analysis, which enable extremely stable codes and fast finite element simulations. With his expertise, he drives the research group forward in the development of numerical methods and supports in particular the development of thermomechanically coupled FE2 models.