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Extreme Computing

Submitted by karelmatous on

There have been several discussions on "Extreme Mechanics" in recent weeks and I would like to extend this topic to "Extreme Computing". As we develop materials that are more complex, hierarchical and are spanning multiple spatial scales, we will need computational tools that can describe them well. Fluid dynamics community has long time ago embraced large-scale computing of conservation laws of mass, momentum and energy. In mechanics of materials, large-scale computing is still in infancy.

Recovery of electrical resistance in copper films on PET subjected to a tensile strain

Submitted by Oleksandr Glushko on

For flexible electronics applications it is important to understand the behavior of electrical resistance of metal films on polymer substrates under applied tensile strain. Although the growth of resistance during tensile loading was investigated in a number of research papers, the recovery of resistance during unloading remains virtually unexplored. In this paper, substantial recovery (decrease) of electrical resistance during and after unloading is demonstrated for copper films on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates subjected to a tensile strain with different peak values.

Fundamental discoveries in mechanics in recent decade or so

Submitted by Zhigang Suo on

A previous post, Getting Ready for Extreme Mechanics Letters, contained the following paragraph:

“We seek papers from researchers in all disciplines. Mechanics appeals to talents of all kinds. Good mechanics has long been created by people from many fields, by Galileo, Newton, Maxwell and Faraday, as well as by Watt, Darwin, Wright brothers and Whitesides. People make discoveries in mechanics often when doing something else (e.g., in seeking evidence for the existence of God, in building cathedrals, in flying airplanes, in laying transatlantic telegraph cables, in fabricating microprocessors, in watching cells move, in fracking for gas, in inventing optical tweezers, in creating soft lithography, in developing wearable or implantable electronics). Mechanics discovered in one field invariably finds applications in other fields.”

Here I would like to give several examples of papers published in recent decade or so. I will link each paper to its citations on Google Scholar, so that you can have an overview of the influence of the paper on other researchers.

Simpleware Case Study: Total Hip Replacement Implant Positioning

Submitted by Simpleware on

Positioning hip implants poses a number of challenges, particularly in terms of getting bone and implant contact right. While experimental testing can be costly, image-based modelling can be very effective at predicting the best and worst positions for implants. 

Lagrange Multipliers in Multi-body Finite Element Code

Submitted by peter.greaves on
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I'm working on a Multibody dynamics code using the finite element method to simulate the behaviour of flexible beams (using this paper if anyone is interested/ it is relevant). I'd like to model joints, and as I only need spherical friction free joints I believe this should be easy using Lagrange multipliers.

When I run the code, the two bodies part company immediately. Any ideas where I'm going wrong? I'm just simulating a double pendulum with 10 elements in each body for now.