A new section on applications has been added to the website on failure criteria.  Six examples of failure applications are given which span the range from very ductile to very brittle isotropic and homogeneous materials.  Summarizing two of the examples, first a very ductile polymer is examined wherein its tensile, compressive, and shear strengths are determined as influenced by a state of superimposed hydrostatic pressure. An interesting fallout from the example shows just how seriously in error the Mises criterion can be, even when applied to a ductile material.

Submissions are now closed for oral presentations to WOM 2011, however, contributions are invited for stand-alone posters. WOM 2011 is to take place in Philadelphia, USA - April 3-7 next year.  It will focus on both the fundamental and applied aspects of wear and friction of materials at the macro-, micro- and nano-scale. Special emphasis will be placed on wear issues in harsh environments, energy conversion, and debris particle generation and its impact on the environment.

Dear Colleagues,  

A postdoctoral position is available starting immediately in the Johnson Research Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  The position will involve theoretical and computational modeling of the mechanics of soft materials/flexible electronics/adhesion, with applications in photonics and energy storage.  The work will involve significant interactions with experimental groups in the Department of Materials Science at the University of Illinois.  Applicants should send a CV with a list of references to htj [at]

At the invitation of Yonggang Huang, I’ll give 4-hour lectures at the NSF Summer Institute Course on the Mechanics of Soft Materials.   I attach the slides of the lectures, to be given on Monday, 10 May 2010.  An abstract of the lectures follows.

I welcome and encourage all my fellow imechanicians to participate in the international conference being organised at Thapar university patiala,  punjab, india during november 2010.

The details regarding the conference and research paper format are attached.

for further queries log on to www.thapar.edu, or http://www.thapar.edu/news-eventDet.asp?id=97 or email at

I am inspired by Mike Ciavarella's recent post on the Shape of the Eiffel Tower to share a bit of my own obsession with the Tower...

I am trying to model a simple 2-D consolidation test in Abaqus.  I am essentially applying a distributed line load across the top of a square soil mesh.  The excess pore pressures that are generated are plotting as negatives.  Is this the expected sign convention for a 2-phase soil/water mesh in compression?

Job Title:Computational Geomechanics Job Summary:ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company has an immediate opening in Computational Mechanics for research scientist at our Corporate Strategic Research Laboratory. Our lab focuses on fundamental science that can lead to technologies having a direct impact on the oil and gas industry.