Additive manufacturing, or 3D-printing, of metallic alloys is a revolutionary technology that has the unique ability to simultaneously build complex part geometries and create material microstructure without requiring tooling. Additive manufacturing can provide substantial savings in energy, cost, and material, and it has the potential to gain unprecedented control over design of alloy microstructures during building. However, designing microstructures that exhibit desired mechanical performance is a tremendous challenge.

With the GAMMA project, Manas first aims to develop multi-scale experiment-modeling synergies to understand the role of the inevitable solid-state heating/cooling that occurs during additive manufacturing in changing the microstructure of metallic alloys during building; this is a highly underexplored and yet a very important aspect of any additive manufacturing process. With this knowledge, he then aims to engineer parts exhibiting desired performance.

Manas V. Upadhyay has been awarded 2020 ERC Starting Grants to conduct this project. Starting Grants aim to support talented early-career researchers who have already provided excellent supervised work and who are ready to work independently as research team leaders.

Manas V. Upadhyay
Manas V. Upadhyay is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanics at the École Polytechnique with a researcher position at the Solid Mechanics Laboratory (LMS). In 2009, he obtained his Bachelor of Engineering degree in the field of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Mumbai (India). He earned his Master’s of Science in 2012 and his PhD in 2014, in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA). He then conducted his post-doctoral research at the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland).

His research background lies at the crossroads between solid mechanics and materials science. He has received an Outstanding Reviewer award from Scripta Materialia in 2017 and the 2019 F2M Coup de Pouce (kickstarter) grant. For more details on his research activities, visit his website.

About the ERC Starting Grants
Awarded by the European Research Council (ERC), Starting Grants aim to support talented early-career researchers who have already provided excellent supervised work and who are ready to work independently as research team leaders. This year, École Polytechnique counts two prestigious winners among its researchers: Manas V. Upadhyay, researcher at the LMS and Landry Bretheau, researcher at the Irradiated Solids Laboratory.

* LMS – A joint research unit between the CNRS and École Polytechnique