A post-doctoral position is available in the lab of Sachin Velankar at the University of Pittsburgh to conduct experimental research on buckling of soft tissues in cephalopods (octopus or cuttlefish).

The project is based on the well-known size effect exhibited by metals, i.e
the fact that their strengths are greatly enhanced when at least one
microstructural lengthscale is scaled down to the nanometer range or
when the size of the object is restricted to the micron or sub-micron
range. At these scales the interfaces and their associated properties
play a significant role. This project will focus on the effect of
spatial confinement on the three most common deformation mechanisms:
dislocation glide, mechanical twinning and mechanically-induced
martensitic phase transformations; and will be based on the synergies
between physically-based phenomenological modelling using
strain-gradient plasticity at the highest scale, and thorough

Two PhD studentships of three years duration are available Department of
Civil and Structural Engineering and the Department of Mechanical
Engineering at the University of Sheffield sponsored by the Leverhulme
Trust.

More details can be found here

 The studentship will fully cover University tuition fees at EU/UK level, provide a tax-free bursary of £13290. Closing date for applications is the 24th September 2010.

The special issue on "Computational and Theoretical Materiomics: Properties of Biological and de novo Bioinspired Materials" has now been published. A list of papers is included below. A sincere thank you to all contributors! Anyone interested in a reprint of any of the articles please send me a message.

Forthcoming papers of International Journal of Applied Mechanics (IJAM) Vol.2 No.4:

1.    “Atomistically-Informed Mesoscale Model Of Deformation And Failure Of Bioinspired Hierarchical Silica Nanocomposites”, Dipanjan Sen, Markus J. Buehler, (Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, USA)

2.    “Single Walled Nanotubes As Kirchoff Elasticas”, Prabhat K. Agnihotri And Sumit Basu (Indian Institute Of Technology, India)

Dear colleagues,



Apologies for cross postings.



The second ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on the eXtended Finite Element

Method (XFEM) will take place in Cardiff (Cardiff University) in the

period 29 June - 1 July 2011. [see http://www.xfem2011.com for

details]



We would like to invite you and your students to submit original

research contributions in the area of partition of unity enrichment.

Load-bearing biological materials such as shell, mineralized tendon and bone exhibit 2-7 levels of structural hierarchy based on constituent materials (biominerals and proteins) of relatively poor mechanical properties. A key question that remains unanswered is what determines the number of hierarchical levels in these materials. Here we develop a quasi-self-similar hierarchical model to show that,

Unidirectional nanocomposite structures with parallel staggered platelet reinforcements are widely observed in natural biological materials. Our recent paper, published in J. Mech. Phys. Solids, is aimed at an investigation of the stiffness, strength, failure strain and energy storage capacity of a unidirectional nanocomposite with non-uniformly or randomly staggered platelet distribution.

A PhD position in the area of mechanics of heterogeneous materials is open in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Virgina.

The successful candidate will possess strong analytical and computational skills, as well as an MS degree in a related field. A TOEFEL score of 90 plus is required for admission into the SEAS PhD Program at the University of Virginia in the case of international student applicants. It is anticipated that the successful applicant will start his/her PhD studies at some point in the spring of 2011.