Le Research Group Website | Experts@Minnesota | Google Scholar

Primary research interests include fracture mechanics, probabilistic mechanics, scaling, and structural reliability. Current research efforts focus on deterministic and probabilistic modeling of fracture and fatigue of structures that are made of brittle heterogeneous (quasibrittle) materials such as concrete, fiber composites, tough ceramics, etc. The research goal is to provide a deep understanding of the behavior of quasibrittle materials, and to develop a sound scientific basis for the design of various engineering structures including buildings, infrastructure, aircraft, ships, medical implants, etc.

Education

• Ph.D. Civil Engineering, Northwestern University (2010)
• M.Eng. Civil Engineering, National University of Singapore (2005)
• B.Eng (1st Class Honors) Civil Engineering, National University of Singapore (2003)

Professional Background

• Structural Engineer, ARUP, 2005-2006

Honors and Awards

• IASSAR Early Achievement Research Award, The International Association for Structural Safety and Reliability, 2022
• Society of Engineering Science Young Investigator Medal, 2019
• EMI Leonardo da Vinci Award, ASCE, 2017
• Army Research Office Young Investigator Award, 2015

Books

Z. P. Bažant, J.-L. Le, and M. Salviato (2021). Quasibrittle Fracture Mechanics: A First Course, Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. (336 pages)

Z. P. Bažant and J.-L. Le (2017). Probabilistic Mechanics of Quasibrittle Structures: Strength, Lifetime, and Size Effect, Cambridge University Press, U.K.

Selected Publications

J. Vievering, J. F. Labuz, and J.-L. Le (2026) “On robustness of stochastic finite element simula- tions for damage and fracture of heterogenous materials,” Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 460, 119086. 

Z. Baizhikova, U. K. Ubamanyu, F. Derveni, R. Ballarini, P. Reis, and J.-L. Le (2026) “A probabilistic buckling model for hemispherical shells with non-interacting localized defects,” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 208, 106468. 

J. Vievering, S. Ong, A. Fok, J. F. Labuz, and J.-L. Le (2025) “Characterization of spatial randomness of elastic properties of heterogeneous materials,” Experimental Mechanics, 65, 1341–1355. 

J.-L. Le (2024) “Statistical scaling in localization-induced failures,” Applied Mechanics Reviews, ASME, 76, 060801. 

Z. Baizhikova, R. Ballarini, and J.-L. Le (2024) “Uncovering the dual role of dimensionless radius in buckling of spherical shells with random geometric imperfection,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 121(16), e2322415121. 

J. Vievering and J.-L. Le (2024) “Mechanism-based mapping of random fields for stochastic FE simulations of quasibrittle fracture,” Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 186, 105578. 

J.-Y. Wu, J.-R. Yao, and J.-L. Le (2023) “Phase-field modeling of stochastic fracture in heterogeneous quasi-brittle solids,” Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 416, 116332. 

A. Tripathi, S. Mantell, and J.-L. Le (2021) “Chemo-mechanical modeling of static fatigue of high density polyethylene in bleach solution,” International Journal of Solids and Structures, 217-218, 90-105. 

A. Gorgogianni, J. Elias, and J.-L. Le (2020) “Mechanism-based energy regularization in computation modeling of quasibrittle fracture,” Journal of Applied Mechanics, ASME, 87(9), 091003 (11 pages). 

A. Tripathi, S. Mantell, and J.-L. Le (2019) “A morphology based constitutive model for high density polyethylene,” Mechanics of Materials, 137, 103091 (12 pages). 

J.-L. Le, J. Elias, A. Gorgogianni, J. Vievering, and J. Kveton (2018) “Rate-dependent scaling of dynamic tensile strength of quasibrittle structures,” Journal of Applied Mechanics, ASME, 85(2), 021003 (12 pages).