Spring 2009, Tuesday and Thursday 10:00 am - 11:30 am, Maxwell Dworkin Room G-135.  This is a second graduate course in solid mechanics.  The course builds on elements of thermodynamics, and explores coupled mechanical, thermal, electrical and chemical actions.  The course draws heavily upon phenomena in soft active materials.

This page is updated for ES 241 taught in Spring 2009.  See also ES 241 taught in Spring 2007.

• Instructor: Zhigang Suo, 617-495-3789, suo@seas.harvard.edu, Pierce Hall 309.
• Office hour: Monday 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm.
• No textbook is required.

Tentative topics

• Isolated systems
• Temperature
• Free energy
• Boltzmann distribution 
• Heat conduction
• Pressure
• Finite deformation:  special cases (This section was taught in ES 240.  Please read this section on your own.)
• Finite deformation:  general theory
• Chemical potential
• Poroelasticity, or diffusion in elastic solids
• Electric potential
• Deformation and polarization
• Polyelectrolyte gels (We are running out of time.  Please read this part on your own before the final workshop.)

Optional topics

• Electrochemical potential
• Instabilities
• Finite deformation of viscoelastic materials
• Complex variable methods
• String and elastica
• Plate

Homework

Final Examination, slides of the course prepared by students

Remarks

• Prerequisite: ES 240 Solid Mechanics or equivalent.  If you are unsure of your background, read the section of ES 240 on finite deformation.
• Keep your own notes.  I'll post my notes online. My notes are mainly written for me, and are not self-contained. As such, my notes may present a distorted view of the subject and of the course.  In particular, many figures are missing in my notes.
• Subscribe to the RSS feed of the course, http://imechanica.org/taxonomy/term/527,529,3366/0/feed
• Subscribe to the RSS feed of the comments on posts related to this course, http://imechanica.org/crss/term/527

Online resources

• Rohan Abeyaratne, Lecture notes on the mechanics of elastic solids.
• James R. Rice, Items developed for teaching.
• Zhigang Suo, ES 240 Solid Mechanics.