On 26 November 2015 M2i researcher Francesco Maresca defended his PhD thesis ‘cum laude’. His research on “Multi-scale modeling of plasticity and damage of lath martensite in multi-phase steels” was supervised by his promotor Dr. ir. Marc Geers, Professor in Mechanics of Materials at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of TU Eindhoven.
The aim of this PhD work was to investigate the Multi-scale modeling of plasticity and damage of lath martensite in multi-phase steels. During this PhD research, Francesco Maresca investigated the key physical mechanisms underlying the plastic deformation of martensite. Based on that he developed a computational model to describe plasticity and fracture of so-called multiphase steels, steel consisting of a mixture of martensite and softer forms of steel.
Starting from November 2015, Dr. ir. Maresca is working as postdoctoral researcher at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.