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Engineering Sciences 241: Advanced Elasticity

Submitted by Zhigang Suo on

This is a second graduate course in solid mechanics, and explores coupled mechanical, thermal, electrical, and chemical actions.  The course draws heavily upon phenomena in soft materials.

This page is updated for ES 241 taught in Spring 2020 (Maxwell Dworkin 221, T/Th 1:30pm-2:45pm)

The course taught in the past:

Introductory Biomechanics Courses

Submitted by MichelleLOyen on
Choose a channel featured in the header of iMechanica

In the early days of biomechanics, there probably were not many dedicated biomechanics courses and instead a regular mechanics curriculum was studied by people interested in tissues and biosystems. However, now that there are so many dedicated bioengineering programs at Universities throughout the world, it seems as though it is more likely that much of students' basic mechanics knowledge comes through dedicated biomechanics courses. This then in turn raises the interesting question of what is taught in these courses?

Phase field simulations of polarization switching-induced toughening in ferroelectric ceramics

Submitted by Jie Wang on

Polarization switching-induced shielding or anti-shielding of an electrically permeable crack in a mono-domain ferroelectric material with the original polarization direction perpendicular to the crack is simulated by a phase field model based on the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation. The domain wall energy and the long-range mechanical and electrical interactions between polarizations are taken into account. The phase field simulations exhibit a wing-shape- switched zone backwards the crack tip.

"Wrinkled hard skins on polymers created by Focused Ion Beam", PNAS , January 2007

Submitted by Ashkan Vaziri on

A stiff skin forms on surface areas of a flat polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) upon exposure to focused ion beam (FIB) leading to ordered surface wrinkles. By controlling the FIB fluence and area of exposure of the PDMS, one can create a variety of patterns in the wavelengths in the micrometer to submicrometer range, from simple one-dimensional wrinkles to peculiar and complex hierarchical nested wrinkles. Examination of the chemical composition of the exposed PDMS reveals that the stiff skin resembles amorphous silica. Moreover, upon formation, the stiff skin tends to expand in the direction perpendicular to the direction of ion beam irradiation. The consequent mismatch strain between the stiff skin and the PDMS substrate buckles the skin, forming the wrinkle patterns. The induced strains in the stiff skin are estimated by measuring the surface length in the buckled state. Estimates of the thickness and stiffness of the stiffened surface layer are estimated by using the theory for buckled films on compliant substrates. The method provides an effective and inexpensive technique to create wrinkled hard skin patterns on surfaces of polymers for various applications. Click here for access to the full article. See also the press release: Applied scientists create wrinkled 'skin' on polymers

Summer Internship at Sandia National Labs, Livermore, CA

Submitted by Jonathan Zimmerman on

Sandia National Laboratories, California has established the Engineering Sciences Summer Institute (ESSI) program, in which applied mechanics, structural analysis and mechanical engineering graduate students are invited to spend a summer at SNL/CA performing research that would jointly benefit the students and Sandia. The program is nine years old and a description of the program is attached. Because of the funding base for this program, we can only consider students having U.S.

2007 ASME Congress, 12-15 November, Seattle, Washington

Submitted by Zhigang Suo on

Deadline for submitting an abstract: 5 March 2007.

Responding to the wishes of members, the ASME Congress will change to a new format, starting this year. Sessions will not be allocated to Divisions, but will be allocated to symposiums after abstracts are reviewed. Thus, your action item is to submit an abstract to a symposium. Here are terms as used in the 2007 Congress:

Session. Technical sessions will be scheduled for four days, Monday-Thursday. Each session will last 90 minutes, and consists of 4-6 talks. There will be 23 parallell sessions at a given time, 5 time slots for sessions per day, and a total of 23x5x4 = 460 sessions for the entire congress.

The SIAM 100-digit challenge of Bronemann et al: A review

Submitted by Mogadalai Gururajan on

Suppose if somebody asked you the following question, and more importantly, wanted the answer to an accuracy of 100-digits:

  • Problem A: A particle at the center of a 10 x 1 rectangle undergoes Brownian motion (i.e., two-dimensional random walk with infinitesimal step lengths) until it hits the boundary. What is the probability that it hits at one of the ends rather than at one of the sides?


Or, this question (again, demanding the answer to an accuracy of 100-digits):

Channel cracks in a hermetic coating consisting of organic and inorganic layers

Submitted by Nicolas Cordero on

Abstract: Flexible electronic devices often require hermetic coatings that can withstand applied strains. This paper calculates the critical strains for various configurations of channel cracks in a coating consisting of organic and inorganic layers. We show that the coating can sustain the largest strain when the organic layer is of some intermediate thicknesses.

Flexible electronics are promising for diverse applications, such as rollable displays, conformal sensors, and printable solar cells. These systems are thin, rugged, and lightweight. They can be manufactured at low costs, for example, by roll-to-roll printing. The development of flexible electronics has raised many issues concerning the mechanical behavior of materials. This paper examines a particular issue: channel cracks in hermetic coatings.

Electronic devices (e.g., organic light-emitting devices, OLEDs) often degrade when exposed to air. Developing hermetic coatings has been a significant challenge. Organic films are permeable to gases, and inorganic films inevitably contain processing flaws, so that neither by themselves are effective gas barriers. These considerations have led to the development of multilayer coatings consisting of alternating organic and inorganic films. To be used in flexible electronics, these coatings must also withstand applied strains without forming channel cracks...