Attached is an intriguing commentary on the scientific method through an example, written by my good friend, Luc Tartar. The specific example is that of trying to understand what 'light' might be, especially from a mathematician's point of view. The mathematician in this case is an extremely talented one, who also happens to actually understand a whole lot of physics and mechanics.
For an interesting news article about the mechanics behind Lego Man's balloon voyage to space, read the Toronto Star article by Mary Ormsby. She writes, "A 1,200-gram weather balloon, the crucial role of gravity, quiver-reducing ropes, Styrofoam’s versatility, burst altitude, a University of Wyoming website and a free software program for shutterbugs were part of the formula Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, both 17, used to launch, film and land the patriotic, flag-bearing Lego Man..."
A Special Issue of Engineering Fracture Mechanics
on
"Fracture and contact mechanics for interface problems", edited by Marco Paggi, Alberto Carpinteri and Peter Wriggers has just been published:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00137944/80
The selected articles were presented in a Minisymposium of the IV European Conference on Computational Mechanics, Paris, France, 2010.
Far greater voltage-actuated deformation is achievable for a dielectric elastomer under equal-biaxial dead load than under rigid constraint usually employed. Areal strains of 488% are demonstrated. The dead load suppresses electric breakdown, enabling the elastomer to survive the snap-through electromechanical instability. The breakdown voltage is found to increase with the voltage ramp rate. A nonlinear model for viscoelastic dielectric elastomers is developed and shown to be consistent with the experimental observations.
Published Online:
We seek for highly motivated
Ph.D. candidates in the field of 1) Acoustic metamaterials (e.g., phononic
Dear all,
Herewith I want to announce the release of the frictional rolling contact model CONTACT version 12.1.
The main changes with respect to earlier versions of the program are as follows:
A postdoctoral position with
primary focus on finite element simulations of active biopolymer
networks is available immediately at Shenoy Research Group @ Brown University . We are looking for a strongly
motivated candidate to work on the mechanics of active cytoskeletal
networks. The ideal candidate will have a background in solid
mechanics/computational physics with expertise in finite element simulations. Experience with Monte Carlo methods and stochastic simulations is desired but not essential. This
individual will have the opportunity to be directly involved in
THE 11th ASIA-PACIFIC CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING PLASTICITY AND ITS APPLICATIONS (AEPA2012)
（5 - 7 December 2012, Singapore）
We are pleased to announce that the Eleventh Asia-Pacific Conference on Engineering Plasticity and Its Applications, AEPA2012, will be held in Singapore, in December 2012, following the previous successful symposia in Hong Kong (1992), Beijing (1994), Hiroshima (1996), Seoul (1998), Hong Kong (2000), Sydney (2002), Shanghai (2004), Nagoya (2006), Daejeon (2008) and Wuhan (2010).
John Hutchinson has just pointed out to me the website, shellbuckling.com. The site is devoted to the mechanics of buckled shells, with downloadable photos, slides, papers, and computer codes. The site also has a section on buckling people. The site is created by a veteran buckling person, Dr. David Bushnell, formerly of Lockheed Martin. Check the site out, and enjoy.
