About
I am research scientist at INRIA, University Grenoble Alpes – TRIPOP project-team. Before, I was postdoctoral research associate in SciGem at the University of Sydney (Australia).
I studied at the School of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Florence (Italy) and did my thesis at Ecole Centrale de Nantes (France), in collaboration with the University of Versailles and St-Quentin, the enterprise Ingerop, and Navier laboratory (Ecole des Ponts Paristech).
My work focuses on the mechanics of complex materials – materials possessing multiple inherent spatial scales.
Following an approach involving theory, numerical simulations, and (more recently) experiments, my work aims to understand the mechanical behaviour of these materials and the scale transition process to deliver averaged, macroscopic constitutive descriptions for investigating large-scale systems and structures. To this end, I develop numerical simulations and methods as well as analytical approaches (discrete and finite element simulation, machine learning, constitutive modelling, thermodynamics, etc.).
My activities concern the study of dissipative, nonlinear phenomena, such as plasticity, fracture, and friction/impacts, occurring within complex materials during their mechanical loading, with particular interest to fast dynamics. I have worked on two complementary thematic axes:
- The fast-dynamic behaviour of masonry/blocky structures subjected to blast loads
- The development of data-driven methods, mainly machine learning approaches, for constitutive modelling and scale transition process in complex materials, based on the principles of thermodynamics.