Nikhil Chandra Admal

For More Information

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Education

• Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, University of Minnesota 2014
• M.S. Mathematics, University of Minnesota 2011
• M.S. Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, University of Minnesota 2010
• B. Tech., M. Tech. (Dual degree) Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras 2006

Academic Positions

• Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Jan 2019 - Present
• Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Aug 2018 - Jan 2019
• Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Materials Science and Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Sep 2014 - Jan 2019

Major Consulting Activities

• FermiLab, Batavia, Illinois - Design of composite superconducting cable windings of solenoids used to generate magnetic fields in the Mu2e project.

Professional Registrations

• Society for Engineering and Science (SES)
• American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
• United States Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM)

Resident Instruction

• ME 470: Fall 2019, Spring 2021, Fall 2022
• TAM 210/211 Statics: Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024
• TAM 445 Continuum Mechanics: Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2024
• TAM 574 Advanced Finite Element Method: Spring 2019, Spring 2021, Spring 2023, Spring 2025

Research Interests

• Atomistic origins of continuum theories
• Interfacial mechanics: grain boundaries, 2D materials and biofilms
• Nanomechanics
• Crystal plasticity
• Grain Boundary Mechanics
• Solid Mechanics and Materials

Chapters in Books

• N. C. Admal, E. B. Tadmor. Statistical mechanics, molecular modeling, and the notion of stress, Chapter A unified interpretation of stress in molecular systems. Springer, New York, 2010

Selected Articles in Journals

• Ahmed, M.T., Choi, M.K., Johnson, H.T. and Admal, N.C., 2025. "Quantifying superlubricity of bilayer graphene from the mobility of interface dislocations." ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces Journal
• Joshi, H., Chesser, I., Runnels, B., Admal, N.C. "An atomistic survey of shear coupling in asymmetric tilt grain boundaries and interpretation using the disconnections framework." Acta Materialia, 275:119,994, 2024
• Kim, J., Admal, N.C. "Statistics of grain microstructure evolution under anisotropic grain boundary energies and mobilities using threshold-dynamics." Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering 32(3): 035022, 2024
• Ahmed, M.T., Wang, C., Banerjee, A.S. and Admal, N.C. "Bicrystallography-informed Frenkel--Kontorova model for interlayer dislocations in strained 2D heterostructures." Mechanics of Materials, p.104903, 2024
• Surana, M., Ananthakrishnan, G., Poss, M., Yaacoub, J., Zhang, K., Ahmed, T., Admal, N. C., Pochet, P., Johnson, H. T., Tawfick, S. "Strain-driven faceting of graphene-catalyst interface". ACS Nano Letters. Nano letters, 23(5):1659– 1665, 2023
• Kim, J., Admal, N.C. “A stochastic framework for evolving grain statistics using a neural network model for grain topology transformations.” Computational Materials Science, 216:111812, 2023
• Admal. N.C., Ahmed, T., Martinez, E., Po, G. “Interface dislocations and grain boundary disconnections using Smith normal bicrystallography.” Acta Materialia, p. 118340, 2022
• Surana, M., Ahmed, T., Admal, N.C. “Interface mechanics of 2D materials on metal substrates.” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, p. 104831, 2022
• Joshi, H., He, J., Admal N.C. “A finite deformation theory for grain boundary plasticity based on geometrically necessary disconnections.” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, p. 104949, 2022
• Ananthakrishnan, G., Surana, M., Poss, M., Yaacoub, J. J., Zhang, K., Admal, N. C., Pochet P., Tawfick S., Johnson, H. T. "Graphene-mediated stabilization of surface facets on metal substrates." Journal of Applied Physics 130(16), 165302, 2021
• He, J., Admal, N.C. "Polycrystal plasticity with grain boundary evolution: A numerically efficient dislocation-based diffuse-interface model." Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering. 2021 December 23; 30:025006
• Kim, J., Jacobs, M., Osher, S., Admal, N.C. "A crystal symmetry-invariant Kobayashi–Warren–Carter grain boundary model and its implementation using a thresholding algorithm." Computational Materials Science, Volume 199, 110575, ISSN 0927-0256, 2021
• Shi, M., Admal, N. C., Tadmor, E. B. "Noise filtering in atomistic stress calculations for crystalline materials." Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 144, 104083, 2020
• Po, G., Admal, N.C., Svendsen, B. "Non-local Thermoelasticity Based on Equilibrium Statistical Thermodynamics." J Elast 139, 37–59, 2020
• Admal, N. C., Segurado, J., Marian, J. "A three-dimensional misorientation axis- and inclination-dependent Kobayashi--Warren--Carter grain boundary model." Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 128, 32-53, 2019
• Po, G., Admal, N. C., Lazar, M. "The Green tensor of Mindlin's anisotropic first strain gradient elasticity." Materials Theory, 3(1), 3, 2019
• Admal, N. C., Po, G., Marian, J. "A unified framework for polycrystal plasticity with grain boundary evolution." International Journal of Plasticity, 106:1-30, 2018
• Po, G., Lazar, M., Admal, N. C., Ghoniem, N. "A non-singular theory of dislocations in anisotropic crystals." International Journal of Plasticity, 103:1-22, 2018
• Admal, N. C., Po, G., Marian, J. "Diffuse-interface polycrystal plasticity: Expressing grain boundaries as geometrically necessary dislocations." Materials Theory, 1(1):6, 2017
• Admal, N. C., Marian, J., Po, G. "The atomistic representation of first strain-gradient elastic tensors." Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 99:93-115, 2017
• Admal, N. C., Tadmor, E. B. "Material fields in atomistics as pull-backs of spatial distributions." Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 89:59-76, 2016
• Admal, N. C., Tadmor, E. B. "The non-uniqueness of the atomistic stress tensor and its relationship to the generalized Beltrami representation." Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 93:72-92, 2016. Special Issue in honor of Michael Ortiz
• Admal, N.C., Tadmor, E. B. "Stress and heat flux for arbitrary multibody potentials: A unified framework." The Journal of Chemical Physics, 134:184106, 2011
• Admal, N. C., Tadmor, E. B. "A unified interpretation of stress in molecular systems." Journal of Elasticity, 100:63-143, 2010

Refereed Conference Papers and Presentations

• Quantifying Superlubricity of Heterostrained Bilayer Graphene From the Mobility of Interface Dislocations , The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society 2025 Meeting, Las Vegas, NV
• Modeling Strain Solitons in 2D Heterostructures, Society of Engineering Science Annual Technical Meeting, 2023, Minneapolis, MN
• Characterization Of Coupling Factors of Asymmetric Tilt Grain Boundaries, Society of Engineering Science Annual Technical Meeting, 2023, Minneapolis, MN
• Towards micromechanics of step-bunching in graphene-metal interfaces, Society of Engineering Science Annual Technical Meeting, 2023, Minneapolis, MN
• Interlayer Dislocations in Large Twist Bilayer Graphene and 2D Heterostructures, 17th United States National Conference on Computational Mechanics, 2023, Albuquerque, NM
• A crystal plasticity framework to model continuum disconnections in polycrystals, The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society 2022 Meeting, Anaheim, CA
• Interface mechanics of 2d materials on metal substrates, 19th U.S. National Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, 2022, Austin, TX
• Interface dislocations and grain boundary disconnections using Smith normal bicrystallography, Multiscale Materials Modeling, 2022, Hopkins, MD
• A thresholding method for the Kobayashi--Warren--Carter grain boundary model with general mobilities, 16th United States National Conference on Computational Mechanics, 2021, Virtual
• Mesoscale modeling of facet formation in graphene-metal interfaces, 16th United States National Conference on Computational Mechanics, 2021, Virtual
• A disconnection-based diffuse-interface approach to model grain boundary motion, 16th United States National Conference on Computational Mechanics, 2021, Virtual
• A fast thresholding algorithm for the Kobayashi-Warren-Carter grain boundary model, Society of Engineering Science, 2020, Virtual

Patents

• Nikhil C. Admal, Parag Thakre, Atanu Phukan, Sriharsha Aradhya. MEMS flow sensor. Number US 7337678 B2. Issued March 2008

Reports

• Junyan He, N. C. Admal. "A study of the beveling instability in solenoid conductors.", A report submitted to FermiLab, 2020

Conferences Organized or Chaired

• USACM 2025, Workshop organizer, Emerging Trends in Nanomechanics: Experimental Computational and Machine Learning Approaches
• USNCCM 2025, Symposium co-organizer, Mechanics and Physics of interfaces - from the atomic scale to the macroscale
• SES 2023, Symposium co-organizer, Modeling materials across scales, linking atomistic with nano and micro mechanics
• USNCCM 2023, Symposium co-organizer, Multiscale Interfacial Mechanics
• USACM 2023, Workshop organizer, Machine learning and computational materials modeling across scales
• USACM 2021, Virtual Workshop co-organizer, New Trends and Open Challenges in Computational Mechanics: from Nano to Macroscale
• USNCCM 2021, Symposium co-organizer, Computational methods for modelling stationary and non-stationary interfaces at multiple scales
• SES 2020, Symposium co-organizer, Grain boundary and Interfacial mechanics
• SES 2020, Scientific track co-chair, Advances in Nanomechanics
• MMM 2018 Symposium co-organizer, Crystal plasticity and discrete defect mechanics
• USNCCM 2015 Symposium co-organizer, Atomistic computation of continuum quantities

Professional Societies

• Vice-Chair, United States Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) Technology Thrust Area - Nanotechnology and Lower Scale Phenomena, 2024-present

Service on Department Committees

• UIUC Coordinator for the Midwest Mechanics Seminar series, 2021-present

Honors

• Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE) Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of California Los Angeles (2016)

Teaching Honors

• Kern Family Foundation Grant, Developing Open Educational Resources for Fundamental Engineering Mechanics Courses (Summer 2024)
• Listed in "Teachers ranked as excellent" by the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning (CITL) (Spring 2019)

Research Honors

• Early Career Award (Feb, 2023)