Publications by Sacha Zenon Wattel

Wear across scales

When two objects are rubbed together, they create friction, heat, and their surfaces might be worn away. However, the fundamental mechanisms behind these processes remain poorly understood. While empirical engineering models exist, they are tailored to spe ...

EPFL2025

A story of two transitions: From adhesive to abrasive wear and from ductile to brittle regime

Jean-François Molinari, Sacha Zenon Wattel

Atomistic simulations performed with a family of model potential with tunable hardness have proven to be a great tool for advancing the understanding of wear processes at the asperity level. They have been instrumental in finding a critical length scale, w ...

2024

Mesh d-refinement: a data-based computational framework to account for complex material response

Jean-François Molinari, Antonio Joaquin Garcia Suarez, Sacha Zenon Wattel

Model-free data-driven computational mechanics (DDCM) is a new paradigm for simulations in solid mechanics. The modeling step associated to the definition of a material constitutive law is circumvented through the introduction of an abstract phase space in ...

2023

Data-driven 1D wave propagation for site response analysis

Jean-François Molinari, Antonio Joaquin Garcia Suarez, Sacha Zenon Wattel

Prediction of ground motion triggered by earthquakes is a prime concern for both the seismology community and geotechnical earthquake engineering one. The subfield occupied with such a problem is termed site response analysis (SRA), its one-dimensional fla ...

WILEY2023

Understanding the mechanisms of adhesive wear for heterogeneous materials through atomistic simulations

Jean-François Molinari, Antonio Joaquin Garcia Suarez, Sacha Zenon Wattel

When two rough surfaces slide against each other, two main behaviors can be observed at the asperity level: A ductile behavior where the asperities tend to smooth out or a brittle behavior where the asperities detach and form debris. Recently, a critical l ...

2022

Data-driven numerical site response

Jean-François Molinari, Antonio Joaquin Garcia Suarez, Sacha Zenon Wattel

Prediction of ground motion triggered by earthquakes is a prime concern for both the seismology community and geotechnical earthquake engineering one. The subfield occupied with such a problem is termed site response analysis (SRA), its one-dimensional fla ...

2022