Dr. Mark C. Messner is a Principal Mechanical Engineer in the Applied Materials Division at Argonne National Laboratory. He is part of the Thermal and Structural Materials group at Argonne where he works on modeling, simulating, and designing high temperature materials and structures. His research areas include mesostuctural modeling, structural and material design and optimization, machine learning for design problems, development of simulation methods, and engineering design method development. His primary research focus is on metallic materials.

Dr. Messner develops and maintains a simulation tool for engineering-scale material simulation for the Nuclear Engineering Material model Library (NEML) developed by Argonne. He also develops and maintains a simulation tool for a crystal plasticity finite element method (CPFEM) package that is integrated into the open-source Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) simulation framework. His work also involves developing tools that allow material models to be calibrated to large experimental databases and several material and structural optimization tools.

Dr. Messner is a current participant in Argonne’s Launchpad Program, designed to provide motivated early- and mid-career researchers with enhanced training and mentoring for developing multimillion-dollar sponsored research programs. Messner’s Launchpad Program project aims to automate the process of developing models for new materials to accelerate the qualification of structural materials for safety-critical, high-temperature applications, such as nuclear energy and aerospace applications. The goal of the project is to combine high throughput materials testing and characterization with machine learning techniques for model feature selection and Bayesian inference to produce accurate models for critical material properties using data from only short-term, rapid tests.

Education

• Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering — University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2014
• M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering — University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2011
• B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering — University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2010

Select Honors

• Member and chair of several American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Section III Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code working groups responsible for high temperature design methods
• Co-chair of the Generation IV Forum Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Engineering Task Force
• Cohort 6 Selectee of Argonne’s Launchpad Program, 2021
• Recipient of National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, 2012–2014

Select Publications

Messner has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles. A few select publications are listed below.

• Chakraborty, A.; Messner, M. C. ​“Bayesian Analysis for Estimating Statistical Parameter Distributions of Elasto-viscoplastic Material Models.” Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics 2021, 66, 103153.
• Nicolas, A.; Messner, M. C.; Sham, T.-L. ​“A Method for Predicting Failure Statistics for Steady State Elevated Temperature Components.” International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping, 2021, 192, 104363.
• Rovinelli, A.; Messner, M. C.; Parks, D. M.; Sham, T.-L. ​“Accurate Effective Stress Measures: Predicting Creep Life for 3D Stresses Using 2D and 1D Creep Rupture Simulations and Data.” Integrating Materials and Manufacturing Innovation, 2021.
• Messner, M. C. ​“Convolutional Neural Network Surrogate Models for the Mechanical Properties of Periodic Structures.” Journal of Mechanical Design, 2020, 142.
• Messner, M. C.; Phan, V.-T.; Sham, T.-L. ​“Evaluating and Modeling Rate Sensitivity in Advanced Reactor Structural Materials: 316H, Gr. 91, and A617.” International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping, 2019, 178, 103997.
• Messner, M. C.; Lebensohn, R. A.; Zepeda-Alarcon, E.; Barton, N. R. ​“A Method for Including Diffusive Effects in Texture Evolution.” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 2019, 125, 785–804.
• Messner, M. C.; Nassif, O.; Ma, R.; Truster, T. J.; Cochran, K.; Parks, D.; Sham, T.-L. ​“Combined Crystal Plasticity and Grain Boundary Modeling of Creep in Ferritic-Martensitic Steels, Part 2: The Effect of Stress and Temperature on Engineering and Microstructural Properties.” Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, 2019, 27, 075010.
• Nassif, O.; Truster, T. J.; Ma, R.; Cochran, K. B.; Parks, D. M.; Messner, M. C.; Sham, T.-L. ​“Combined Crystal Plasticity and Grain Boundary Modeling of Creep in Ferritic-Martensitic Steels, Part 1: Theory and Implementation.” Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, 2019, 27, 075009.