Dr Mahmoud Mostafavi
Lecturer
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Sir Frederick Mappin Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
UK
Telephone: +44 (0) 114 222 7868
Fax: +44 (0) 114 222 7890
Email: m.mostafavi@sheffield.ac.uk
Profile
Mahmoud received his Ph.D. from the University of Bristol in 2009; the topic was plastic constraint (geometry) and multi-axiality effect on the fracture behaviour of metallic materials. He then joined the Materials Performance Centre at the University of Manchester as a research associate, where he studied the effects of stress-state in the fracture of graphite.
Following that he was appointed as a James Martin Fellow at the University of Oxford in 2011, where he worked on developing a method to study three-dimensional damage initiation. In 2012 he was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at Linacre College, Oxford. He joined the department in 2013 as a lecturer. Mahmoud sits on the UK Forum for Engineering Structural Integrity council.
Research Areas
Mahmoud's research focus is two and three dimensional imaged-based fracture mechanics. This is particularly important for materials in the energy and aerospace sectors, where damage development limits lifetime. We need techniques that can study damage development in aggressive environments.
Digital image correlation is a suitable technique to study fracture behaviour of components with different degrees of plastic constraint, geometry, mode mixity, multi-axiality loading, etc. DIC, however, is limited to the surface of the material. Digital volume correlation, combined with three-dimensional imaging techniques (e.g. X-ray computed tomography) allows us to measure displacements, and hence deformation, within materials.
Experimental work is carried out using state-of-the-art tomography facilities, such as the Diamond Light Source, in collaboration with university partners that include Oxford, Manchester, Birmingham, Southampton and Bristol. The experimental results are then used to validate complex finite element models. The objective is to expand our knowledge on how damage will develop under real conditions of service, and to improve structural integrity assessments.
Journal articles
- Mostafavi M, McDonald SA, Çetinel H, Mummery PM & Marrow TJ (2013) Flexural strength and defect behaviour of polygranular graphite under different states of stress. Carbon, 59, 325-336.
- Mostafavi M & Marrow TJ (2012) Quantitative in situ study of short crack propagation in polygranular graphite by digital image correlation. Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures, 35(8), 695-707.
- Becker TH, Mostafavi M, Tait RB & Marrow TJ (2012) An approach to calculate the J-integral by digital image correlation displacement field measurement. Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures, 35(10), 971-984.
- Mostafavi M, Schmidt MJJ, Marsden BJ & Marrow TJ (2012) Fracture behaviour of an anisotropic polygranular graphite (PGA). Materials Science and Engineering A, 558, 265-277.
- Mostafavi M, Smith DJ & Pavier MJ (2011) A micromechanical fracture criterion accounting for in-plane and out-of-plane constraint. Computational Materials Science, 50(10), 2759-2770.
- Mostafavi M, Smth DJ & Pavier MJ (2010) Reduction of measured toughness due to out-of-plane constraint in ductile fracture of aluminium alloy specimens. Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures, 33(11), 724-739.
- Mostafavi M & Marrow TJ (2010) In situ observation of crack nuclei in poly-granular graphite under ring-on-ring equi-biaxial and flexural loading. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 78(8), 1756-1770.
- Mostafavi M, Smith DJ & Pavier MJ (2010) Fracture of aluminium alloy 2024 under biaxial and triaxial loading. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 78(8), 1705-1716.
- Mostafavi M, Smith DJ & Pavier MJ (2009) Quantification of constraint effects in fracture mechanism transition for cracked structures under mixed mode loading. Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures, 32(1), 5-12.
- Ayatollahi MR & Mostafavi M (2006) Finite element analysis of a center crack specimen warm pre-stressed under different modes of loading. Computational Materials Science, 38(4), 847-856.
- Ayatollahi MR & Mostafavi M (2005) Effects of crack tip blunting and residual stress on a warm pre-stressed crack specimen. Computational Materials Science, 37(3), 393-400.
- Mostafavi M, McDonald SA, Mummery PM & Marrow TJ () Observation and quantification of three-dimensional crack propagation in poly-granular graphite. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, In press.
