[NOTE: Posting on behalf of my colleague William Stewart at Stony Brook University]

PET is everywhere: bottles, packaging, fibers, films.

When we pull it, it can neck. What appears to be damage or the end of useful deformation can instead become the beginning of a new material state.

I had lots of fun learning about the key role of mechanics in the important area of neurogenerative diseases, so I thought I would share with the iMechanica community our recent paper on this area.

 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00366-026-02313-5

A computational framework to predict the spreading of Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Hi all,

We would like to invite you to attend an upcoming presentation:

"From Geometry to Physics without Boundary-Fitted Meshing: Multiphysics Simulation on Complex Domains"

The talk will be given by Dr. Cheng-Hau Yang from Argonne National Laboratory. Please refer to the attached image for more information.

The seminar will be held May 19, 2026, 12:00 -1:00 PM CDT.

Feel free to join the zoom meeting through the following meeting ID and passcode:
 

meeting ID: 824 6447 8256

passcode: 003801

According to Research.com 2026, Prof. Yonggang Huang (with D-Index of 172 and Citations of 113,658) from Northwestern University ranks # 1 among Aerospace and Mechanical Engineers in the world. Big congratulations!

The complete list is available via the following link.

https://research.com/scientists-rankings/mechanical-and-aerospace-engin…

Position Description: The Wing Kam Liu group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern (PI: Professor Wing Kam Liu) invites applications for a postdoctoral position in AI-empowered computational mechanics with a joint appointment through HIDENN-AI, Inc., (co-founded by Prof. Liu)

Key Responsibilities:

A fully funded PhD position is available at the Department of Mechanics and Materials, Faculty of Transportation Sciences, Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU), Czech Republic, within the international PICTUS doctoral fellowship programme.

A fully funded PhD position is available in my group at the University of Groningen (Netherlands), on discrete dislocation plasticity and interaction with precipitates. A strong solid mechanics background and computational mechanics skills are needed. The project is multi-scale since it will include connection with atomistics.

To apply (deadline 30 June): https://werkenbij.rug.nl/vacature/phd-position-multi-scale-modelling-of…

Dynamic shear banding under adiabatic conditions in a mesoscale polycrystalline aggregate is studied using a model of mesoscale dislocation mechanics and experiments. The model involves a length scale related to hardening induced by excess/polar/geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) density, and utilizes a simple classical crystal plasticity model with isotropic Voce law hardening. Simulations of statistically representative volume elements of a polycrystal determined from experimental samples are conducted. Studies in 2-d (section) and 3-d capture the experimentally observed finite-width shear bands and the formation of low-angle subgrain boundaries even in the absence of heat conduction in the model, as well as size-dependent strengthening for grain sizes from 1 to 20μm. The 2-d and large-scale 3-d simulations, the latter involving 1 million finite elements, provide access to the progressive evolution of material strength, stress state, and temperature in the course of large deformations. GND distributions accumulate at grain boundaries and form patterned structures within grain interiors, offering insight into the microstructural changes that precede failure in adiabatic shear bands. Mesh-converged, delocalized and localized plastic flow to very large deformations without softening is observed for a significant range of parameters, reflecting a competition between GND hardening and thermal softening in setting the non-softening steady state in the absence of other ductile damage mechanisms in the model.