Dr. Nastac’s research interests include:

• Solidification Science (solidification-kinetics, convection effects on solidification processes (nucleation and growth kinetics, interface stability), microstructure evolution modeling of primary and secondary phases in various alloy systems)
• Apply novel experimental techniques including levitation, atomization, electromagnetic stirring, ultrasonic (cavitation, shock force and acoustic streaming technologies), micro-chilling technology, mechanical shearing, etc., for understanding and control of various microscopic and macroscopic phenomena that take place during the solidification of alloys and metal-matrix-composites including microstructure evolution, interface instability of alloys, dendritic growth, segregation, cracking, hot tearing, shrinkage and porosities, mold/metal interface interactions in casting alloys, morphological transitions, etc.
• Advanced multi-scale multi-phase multi-component modeling and simulation approaches:
• Multi-scale Modeling of the segregation and microstructure to enhance material properties
• Micro-modeling of the mechanical behavior of various alloy systems
• Process modeling of complex manufacturing processes
• Stress and deformation evolution modeling during solidification and cooling
• Advanced metal-casting and remelting processing
• Processing-microstructure-properties relationships utilizing computational intelligence tools such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Genetic Algorithms (GA), decision trees, fuzzy logic, etc.
• Physical metallurgy of ferrous and nonferrous alloys
• Advanced manufacturing of specialty alloys, light alloys, metal-matrix-composites and nano-metal-matrix-composites