The Solid Mechanics group of the University of Trento (Italy) announces ISDMM09, the fourth international meeting devoted to Mechanics of Material Forces, following the workshops held at Kaiserslautern (2003), Symi (2005) and Aussois (2007), and will be held in the alpine city of Trento, Italy, from July 6th to 9th, 2009.

Abstract submission: January 31, 2009

More info: http://portale.unitn.it/events/isdmm09

Dear all,

Just in case it is of interest to some of you, we provide links to three postprints related to our Abaqus implementation of the X-FEM. The latest is an "article in press" in Eng Frac Mech where we explain the essentials of the implementation and provide a link to the source code for the Abaqus computation. Note that the implementation is limited to 2D and the pre-processing code needed for element subdivision is not provided.

The other papers are an application to crack growth under fretting fatigue conditions (published in IJSS) and a specific enrichment of the singularity of a sliding corner (published in IJNME). We hope that these three publications may be helpful.

The Division of Engineering and Applied Science at the
California Institute of Technology invites applications for a tenure-track
faculty position at the level of assistant professor in solid, structural or
computational mechanics, with a preference in space applications. For details
see

http://www.eas.caltech.edu/search/aero-search/

 
Dear All,

A new multi-million pound initiative to fund research collaborations and improve links between UK and overseas researchers has been launched.

The Newton International Fellowships aim to attract the most promising, early stage, post-doctoral researchers working overseas, who do not hold UK citizenship, in the fields of humanities, engineering, natural
and social sciences.

The scheme provides funding to successful candidates for up to 2 years to work with research groups at a UK research Institution and to establish long term international collaborations.

When a bi-material sample for the characterization of interfacial fracture toughness is manufactured, the sample is not usually stress-free at room temperature. If an interface between a metallic substrate and a polymeric adhesive is considered, there are essentially two sources of residual stresses for a dry sample at room temperature:

Hi, how the Peach-Koelher force acts on a dislocation?, I understand when the resolved shear stress acts on a dislocation. But not quite the term that provokes  climb on an edge dislocation...

does anyone know any current theories on the stress wave propagation in a  complex media(such as concrete or rock).(1D sphere wave or complex)

We are looking for extremely high-energy, self-motivated Ph.D. candidates with exceptional problem-solving, communication, leadership and interpersonal skills who are seeking challenges to solve real technical problems. If you have any of the academic qualifications listed below, submit an application to join our team of international experts in the Simulation & Modeling Group located in Sugar Land, TX. Please send your cover letter and resume via email to KLi2@sugar-land.oilfield.slb.com

Composite Vehicle Research Center (CVRC) at MSU has an immediate opening for a postdoctoral research associate to conduct research in non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM) of composite materials in an effort to develop self-diagnostic composite structures for air and ground vehicles. 
http://www.egr.msu.edu/~shong/Postdoc.html

Highly motivated PhD or MS/PhD candidates are sought for research in experimental solid mechanics in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University.
http://www.egr.msu.edu/~shong/PhD.html

Many of you developed Finite Element codes. These codes are usually quite complex. So you all know the importance of testing your results to see if what you programmed makes sense. The usual approach is to compare your FEM program with somethig already published. With this in mind, I designed a series of "lectures" on the topic of elasticity solutions for plates. You can find the details in 

http://attila.sdsu.edu/~demasi/list_lectures.htm

If you do not have time to read the details or if you are only interested in the testing of your code, you may find of some interest the closed form alegbraic formuls reported here:

http://attila.sdsu.edu/~demasi/lect01_31.htm

Evelyn L. Hu, a pioneer in the fabrication of nanoscale electronic and photonic devices, has been named Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering in Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), effective Jan. 1, 2009.  Read more

David R. Clarke, an inventive materials scientist recognized worldwide for his outstanding contributions to the study of ceramic materials, has been named Gordon McKay Professor of Materials in Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), effective Jan. 1, 2009.  Read more

Hello,

I'm doing some research in aircraft protection against impact, mainly refering to UAV's protection of the payload (avionics,etc..) during crash.

Does anyone knows where I can get some info about related topics (impact in composites, collision protection, reinforcement of structures, etc..)?

Thanks, Ivo Pires

The W.M. Keck Institute for Space Studies at the California Institute of Technology announces an opportunity for highly qualified individuals to apply for postdoctoral fellowships to conduct research in space science and engineering. Please see http://www.kiss.caltech.edu for additional information.

The Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is actively seeking candidates for faculty positions in all areas of mechanical science and engineering.  This includes candidates whose research interests are in mechanical science and engineering but whose backgrounds are in another area of engineering, or in biology, chemistry, physics, or applied mathematics.  Information about the department, and the relevant research areas, can be found at http://mechse.illinois.edu/.

I am currently reading a book about "Material Inhomogeneities in Elasticity" written by Gérard Maugin.

He brings up the covariancy and contravariancy of some well-known stress tensors and in particular that of the Cauchy stress tensor. I was not very familiar with the concept of covariance, so i read up on this very specific tensorial notion. 

Please find below a link to an open position (Assistant Professor, tenure track) at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne, Switzerland).  http://professeurs.epfl.ch/page74720.html

Hello,

As far as I know, there are two ways to derive the linearized equations (employed in the Newton-Raphson method) in nonlinear finite element methods. 

In the first approach, starting with the weak formulation, the FE approximations are substituted into the weak form, you then get the semi-discrete equations. After that, the linearization is applied on this discrete equation to get the tangent matrix. The book of Prof. Ted Belytschko followed this approach.

Is it possible to carryout the Fatigue Analysis using LS Dyna.

If it is not possible then what will be the best software to carry out the analysis.

Prof. Xiaodong Li and I are collaborating in identifying those physical mechanisms that govern the mechanical properties of nanomaterials. Recently, we have a manuscript accepted by the Journal of Applied Physics and would like to share it with you.

This morning I was looking at the book Mechatronic Reliability by Wei Yang.  The forword I wrote for the book brought back memories of days he and I spent in Santa Barbara and Princeton.  The text of the forword follows.

As a complement to the current issue of journal club, I would like to bring your attention to our current work on dielectric elastomers. 

Xuanhe Zhao and Zhigang Suo A layer of a dielectric elastomer expands its area when a voltage is applied across its thickness.  The layer can be programmed to deform in three dimensions by using patterned prestretches, electrodes, and stiffeners. 

Delivered at the Annual Dinner of the Applied Mechanics Division, in the Back Bay Ballroom, Sheraton Hotel, Boston, in the evening of 4 November 2008, the Election Day of the United States of America 

Before I start, let me mention my wife, Eva's contribution to this lecture. She said to me to make a draft first and then she would be happy to help me to tighten it up later on. After a day and half's work, I took the result to her who quickly informed me that: it was much too long, contained too much unnecessary details, and that, it can be reduced by 3/4th without losing anything significant!

After another several hours of effort, I took the product to her who immediately requested further reduction, by at least a factor of two!

This process went on for a few cycles when, finally, she said: "if you cut it in half, then it might be OK."

I did.

She looked at it and asked me to read it out loud.

I read: "Ladies and gentlemen, and the Timoshenko Medal Committee, thank you very much."

"Now, that is a good after dinner speech", she shouted.

Then she thought for a minute and said: "You Persians are very wordy. If you leave out the ‘very much', and just say ‘thank you' then it would be a great after dinner speech!"

A Mechanics-Guided Journey through Engineering Science

I wish to first thank our gracious MC, Professor Dan Inman, for his generous introduction.  I would also like to thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for being here tonight, after several arduous political weeks of having repeatedly heard from Joe the Established Politician, Joe the Unlicensed Plumber, and Jack the Unknown Electrician, just to mention a few, to hear from Sia, the also Unlicensed Mechanician. 

I am indeed, thrilled and honored to have been chosen as the 2008 Timoshenko Medalist, and wish to thank the Timoshenko Medal Committee for, at least from my point of view, a pretty good choice!