About

Matthew R. Begley is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on simulating fracture in materials with evolving microstructure, as well as developing and understanding thermal barrier coatings, environmental barrier coatings, and ceramic matrix composites. He is engaged in explicit discrete element simulations, novel materials synthesis, field-assisted materials assembly, and 3D printing/assembly of two-phase composites. His work also includes bio-inspired materials, hierarchical ordered materials, and structures such as tensegrity. Additionally, he investigates microfluidics, pulsatile flows, solid-fluid interactions, and acoustic assembly of particles, with a particular interest in frequency-specific behavior.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Materials science
• Engineering
• Composite material
• Physics
• Environmental science
• Biochemical engineering
• Mechanical engineering
• Chemical engineering
• Engineering drawing
• Biology
• Biomedical engineering

Selected publications

• Mechano-chemical understanding of NaSICON for aqueous redox-flow batteries

  MRS Communications · 2026-03-31

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Simulating effects of microstructure on the mechanical response of flexible foams

  Journal of materials research/Pratt's guide to venture capital sources · 2025-07-31

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Flexible foams with stochastic microstructures are widely employed in impact mitigation, yet the connection between microstructure and mechanical performance remains incompletely understood. This study combines computational foam generation with high-throughput finite element simulations to quantify the effects of microstructural features on compressive response. Synthetic microstructures created using a regularized Voronoi tessellation and a bubble growth algorithm closely replicate experimentally observed distributions of cell area, interior angle, and wall count. In contrast, conventional random Voronoi foams exhibit nonphysical features. Simulations reveal that increasing microstructural regularity enhances stiffness and strength under uniaxial compression. Geometrical and mechanical representative volume elements (RVEs) are identified, requiring 10 × 10 and 30 × 30 cell arrays, respectively. Energy dissipation analysis shows that extreme or irregular cells reduce mechanical efficiency. These findings underscore the critical role of microstructural control in foam design and suggest that tuning size distribution and regularity can enable application-specific optimization of mechanical properties. Graphical abstract

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The impacts of thermoelastic anisotropy and grain boundary misorientation on microcracking in ceramics

  Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids · 2025-01-14 · 3 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Therapeutic Implants: Mechanobiologic Enhancement of Osteogenic, Angiogenic, and Myogenic Responses in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells on 3D‐Printed Titanium Truss (Adv. Healthcare Mater. 27/2025)

  Advanced Healthcare Materials · 2025-10-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Geometry‐Assisted Phase Selection: Interplay of Phase Heterogeneity and Geometry in Gyroid Shell Metamaterials Printed with 17‐4 PH Stainless Steel

  Advanced Engineering Materials · 2025-02-18 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Microstructural control is both a major challenge and an opportunity in additive manufacturing of parts, and plays a particularly dominant role in the performance of components with complex geometries. Much effort has gone into metal additive manufacturing of metamaterials; yet a thorough understanding of microstructural controllability toward optimized part performance is lacking. Of interest is the development of functionally graded metamaterials, which locally optimize part properties to enhance overall part performance. 17‐4 precipitation hardened (PH) stainless steel has previously been shown to exhibit phase control as a function of printing parameters; yet the influence of geometry on phase evolution in printing of complex structures and metamaterials has so far remained unexplored. The present study aimed at elucidating the relationship between phase evolution and geometry in gyroid shell metamaterials printed in 17‐4 PH steel via laser powder bed fusion. Local hardening is demonstrated to occur as a function of geometry, likely prompted by topology‐induced variations in cooling profiles. The associated phase evolution is governed by the gyroid geometry and strongly correlates with geometry‐dependent loading paths therein. This demonstrates the possibility of inducing functional grading through geometric complexity, highlighting the possibility of significant property enhancements through local microstructural control.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Large recoverable elastic energy in chiral metamaterials via twist buckling

  Nature · 2025-03-12 · 117 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Orientation-adaptive virtual imaging of defects using EBSD

  Ultramicroscopy · 2025-07-15 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) is a foundational technique for characterizing crystallographic orientation, phase distribution, and lattice strain. Embedded within EBSD patterns lies latent information on dislocation structures, subtly encoded due to their deviation from perfect crystallinity — a feature often underutilized. Here, a novel framework termed orientation-adaptive virtual apertures (OAVA) is introduced. OAVAs enable the generation of virtual images tied to specific diffraction conditions, allowing the direct visualization of individual dislocations from a single EBSD map. By dynamically aligning virtual apertures in reciprocal space with the local crystallographic orientation, the method enhances contrast from defect-related strain fields, mirroring the principles of diffraction-contrast imaging in TEM, but without sample tilting. The approach capitalizes on the extensive diffraction space captured in a single high-quality EBSD scan, with its effectiveness enhanced by modern direct electron detectors that offer high-sensitivity at low accelerating voltages, reducing interaction volume and improving spatial resolution. We demonstrate that using OAVAs, identical imaging conditions can be applied across a polycrystalline field-of-view, enabling uniform contrast in differently oriented grains. Furthermore, in single-crystal GaN, threading dislocations are consistently resolved. Algorithms for the automated detection of dislocation-induced contrast are presented, advancing defect characterization. By using OAVAs across a wide range of diffraction conditions in GaN, the visibility/invisibility of defects, owing to the anisotropy of the elastic strain field, is assessed and linked to candidate Burgers vectors. Altogether, OAVA offers a new and high-throughput pathway for orientation-specific defect characterization with the potential for automated, large-area defect analysis in single and polycrystalline materials. • OAVA enables dislocation imaging from a single EBSD map without sample tilting. • Virtual apertures adapt to grain orientation for uniform defect contrast in EBSD. • Dislocation contrast trends validate theory and support Burgers vector analysis. • Automated detection extracts contrast gradients for high-throughput defect mapping. • Method performance hinges on high-fidelity EBSD data and accurate calibration.

  PublisherDOI

• Predicting multi-nodal in-nozzle particle interactions in high-viscosity fluid mediums for acoustophoretic direct-ink writing of line-patterned composites

  Additive manufacturing · 2025-04-08 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Patterned functional materials offer improved properties (electrical, thermal, etc.) over their bulk counterparts in many applications, including energy storage, flexible electronics, and sensors. However, manufacturing approaches for patterning materials over large areas with features on the order of hundreds of microns or less are limited. Acoustophoresis, which uses acoustic forces to control particle arrangement in a fluid medium, is a pathway to address this challenge. This process is dependent on particle and fluid properties and enables patterning of a broad range of materials. Herein, a model with experimental validation is presented to demonstrate that acoustophoresis can be combined with direct-ink writing (DIW) to fabricate line patterns over large cm-scale areas. An in-nozzle particle interaction model was developed to investigate the impact of processing conditions on multi-nodal acoustophoretic DIW. The model predicts patterned line widths within a factor of two relative to experimental results for a high-viscosity case study. The model was used to investigate the impact of frequency, particle loading, particle radius, and acoustic pressure on line width and patterning time, providing critical feedback regarding the processing conditions suitable for a target application. Model results illustrate that frequency had the greatest impact on line patterns: increasing from 1 to 3 MHz resulted in a greater than 65% reduction in line width and a greater than 85% reduction in patterning time. Additionally, experiments were conducted with an alumina-epoxy ink, and a ∼21 cm 2 area pattern was rastered in ∼5.5 minutes, demonstrating a path towards large-area line-patterned composite fabrication. • Multi-nodal acoustic model defines processing for line-patterned composites. • Increasing frequency reduces line width and patterning time in high-viscosity inks. • First experimental demonstration of large-area acoustophoretic direct-ink writing.

  PublisherDOI

• Minimizing finite viscosity enhances relative kinetic energy absorption in bistable mechanical metamaterials but only with sufficiently fine discretization: A nonlinear dynamical size effect

  Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids · 2025-03-13 · 2 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Energy-resolved EBSD using a monolithic direct electron detector

  Ultramicroscopy · 2025-12-18 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Accurate quantification of the energy distribution of backscattered electrons (BSEs) contributing to electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) patterns remains as an active challenge. This study introduces an energy-resolved EBSD methodology based on a monolithic active pixel sensor direct electron detector and an electron-counting algorithm to enable the energy quantification of individual BSEs, providing direct measurements of electron energy spectra within diffraction patterns. Following detector calibration of the detector signal as a function of primary beam energy, measurements using a 12 keV primary beam on Si(100) reveal a broad BSE energy distribution across the diffraction pattern, extending down to 3 keV. Furthermore, an angular dependence in the weighted average BSE energy is observed, closely matching predictions from Monte Carlo simulations. Pixel-resolved energy maps reveal subtle modulations at Kikuchi band edges, offering insights into the backscattering process. By applying energy filtering within spectral windows as narrow as 2 keV centered on the primary beam energy, significant enhancement in pattern clarity and high-frequency detail is observed. Notably, BSEs in the 9-10 keV range dominate Kikuchi pattern formation, while BSEs in the 2-8 keV range, despite having undergone substantial energy loss, still produce Kikuchi patterns. By enabling energy determination at the single-electron level, this approach introduces a versatile tool-set for expanding the quantitative capabilities of EBSD, thereby offering the potential to deepen the understanding of diffraction contrast mechanisms and to advance the precision of crystallographic measurements.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Understanding Elastomer/Stiff Material Interfaces in Fluidic Environments for Bioanalytical Microdevices

  NSF · $135k · 2010–2014

• Understanding Elastomer/Stiff Material Interfaces in Fluidic Environments for Bioanalytical Microdevices

  NSF · $350k · 2008–2011

• SST: A New Class of Polymeric Micro-Devices for Chemical Sensing with Integrated Microelectronic/Optical Transduction

  NSF · $400k · 2005–2009

• NIH Grant R01EB011591

  NIH · $1.3M · 2016

• CAREER: Determining Time and Temperature-Dependent Material Properties for Small Components: Integrated Education and Research

  NSF · $151k · 2001–2005

Frequent coauthors

• Robert M. McMeeking

  King's College Hospital

  36 shared

• James P. Landers

  University of Virginia

  30 shared

• Marcel Utz

  Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

  30 shared

• Erkin Şeker

  University of California, Davis

  28 shared

• Michael L. Reed

  28 shared

• Hilary Bart‐Smith

  University of Virginia

  25 shared

• Frank W. Zok

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  24 shared

• John W. Hutchinson

  23 shared

Awards & honors

• Fraunhofer-Bessel Award, Humboldt Foundation