iMechanica

As part of USNCTAM2014 (17th U.S. National Congress on Theoretical & Applied Mechanics) to be held at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan from June 15-20, 2014, we are organizing a Minisymposium
entitled

Damage Mechanics of Solids and Structures 

within the Mechanics of Solids and Structures Technical Track. Detailed information on the conference is available at http://www.usnctam2014.org

As part of USNCTAM2014 (17th U.S. National Congress on Theoretical & Applied Mechanics) to be held at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan from June 15-20, 2014, we are organizing a Minisymposium entitled

Mechanics and Physics of Soft Matter Materials 

The Applied Mechanics Division (AMD) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) strives to foster the intelligent use of mechanics by engineers and to develop this science to serve the needs of the engineering community. The AMD was founded in 1927 with Stephen Timoshenko as its first chair.

It might be fun for us to work together to collect phenomena of large elastic deformation.  These phenomena will enliven teaching and motivate research.  As inspiration, here are two albums of fluid motion

Creasing-Wrinkling Transition in Elastomer Films under Electric Fields

Qiming Wang and Xuanhe Zhao

Phase Diagrams of Instabilities in Compressed Film-Substrate Systems

Qiming Wang and Xuanhe Zhao

Graduate student research positions are available in Professor
Martini’s Fundamental Tribology group in Mechanical Engineering at the
University of California Merced. UC Merced is the 10th campus of the University
of California system, opened in 2005, with a rapidy growing research program. Professor Martini’s
group focuses on computational modeling of friction, wear and lubrication of
sliding surfaces, with particular emphasis on nanoscale interfacial phenomena.
Prospective applicants should contact Professor Martini directly.

Faculty Positions
Mechanical Engineering

The Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE) Division at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) invites qualified applicants to apply for faculty positions at all ranks (Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor) in the Mechanical Engineering Program.

 R. Brenner   A. J. Beaudoin    P. Suquet    A. Acharya

(to appear in Philosophical Magazine)

At the Division of Mechanics
of Functional Materials in the institute of Materials Science, TU Darmstadt the
following research position is to be filled as soon as possible:

 Research position (E 13 TV – TU
Darmstadt), Postdoc/Doctoral Candidate

The position is
scheduled for three years.

The research group of Structural Composites at IMDEA Materials (Madrid, Spain), led by Dr. Cláudio S. Lopes and Dr. Carlos González, invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellow in the field of multiscale computational analysis of composite structures. Candidates with strong background knowledge on computational damage mechanics, model development, and on numerical simulation of advanced composite materials and structures are strongly encouraged to apply. Experience in experimental mechanical testing of composites is highly valued.

At finite deformations, the 2nd Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor S_{IJ} is work-conjugate to the Euler-Lagrange strain tensor E_{IJ}, i.e. the work done by the stress S_{IJ} at developing a strain E_{IJ} per unit volume in the reference configuration is

W = 1/2 S_{IJ} E_{IJ}  (Einstein summation over repeated indices implied)

I would like to express this in the same form as used in linear elasticity, i.e. to write S_{IJ} = M_{IJKL} E_{KL}, which would give me

W = 1/2 M_{IJKL} E_{IJ} E_{KL}

The Mach Conference showcases the state of the art of multiscale research in materials, with an emphasis on advancing the fundamental science and engineering of materials and structures in extreme environments.

Abstracts are due January 6, 2014. For more information, please go to the conference website machconference.org.

Jim Barber and I just got accepted this paper in JMPS, and it is also already available on Arxiv.  We found a remarkably simple closed form solution for adhesion on orthotropic materials in the planes of symmetry.  This shows adhesion can increase significantly due to anisotropy, namely the JKR solution continues to hold in the sense of mean elastic modulus, but the prefactor can grow without limit. We expect applications in crystals indentation, but also in locomotion in biological world.

The above minisymposium is organised
at the 11th World Congress on Computational Mechanics in Barcelona
(Spain), July 20 - 25, 2014 (http://www.wccm-eccm-ecfd2014.org/frontal/default.asp). 

The 2014 EMI Conference will take place on August 5-8, 2014 at
McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and will be chaired by Prof. Samir E.
Chidiac, Ph.D. P.Eng., Department of Civil Engineering.  The conference
will focus on “Mechanics for Sustainable and Resilient Systems”, a theme
of interest to participants from the disciplines of civil engineering,
mechanical engineering and engineering physics. 

A studentship opportunity is available at COHMAS within the framework of a research project related to the rapid and online identification of specific composite materials. The candidate will have to design a short experimental campaign to meet specific constraints, to conduct testing and full field measurement on these configuration and to get familiar with classical inverse problem procedures.

A studentship opportunity is available at COHMAS within the framework of a research project related to future flexible electronics. These are usually made of a transparent electrode (ITO) deposited on a polymer substrate. Such design results in loss of integrity when cracks develop in the thin brittle electrode. This projects intends to characterize mechanical properties of new solution for which the electrode and the substrate are merged together into a single active layer. The project will cover fatigue dependent properties as well a piezoresistive effects. Prospective candidate students will be exposed to a truly multidisciplinary work, involving topics in materials science and solid mechanics; in addition, he/she will participate in scientific outreach activities.

A studentship opportunity is available at COHMAS within the framework of a research project related to adhesion phenomena across interfaces with spatially heterogeneous adhesive properties. The project aims to explore the effect of heterogeneities on the mechanical behavior of bonded interfaces through integrated experiments and simulations. The research seeks to systematically design multiple sites of potential crack pinning across the interface, able to trigger sequential events of initiation, propagation and crack arrest, thus promoting macroscopic variations of strength and toughness.

The Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) invites applications for a Postdoctoral fellow in Mechanical Engineering at the Composite and Heterogeneous Material Analysis and Simulation Laboratory (COHMAS, http://cohmas.kaust.edu.sa).