Zhigang Suo's blog

Notes and slides for a course on engineering thermodynamics.  I used the Dover edition of Carnot's book.

I gave a seminar at Xian Jiaotong University on 27 October 2009.  I recently found the video of the seminar online.  The seminar was in Chinese, but the slides were in English.

• Video of the seminar
• Slides of the seminar  

If the subject interests you, the following papers will lead you to the literature.

When I learned chemistry in college, the subject was presented to me with equations of chemical reactions.  It took me some time to realize a couple of simple points:  reactants need to meet to produce a product, and compounds take space.

The connection between chemistry and mechanics is made vivid to me in recent years in studying lithium batteries.  As an example, here is a recent paper when chemistry is linked with plasticity, mass transport, and fracture—essential ingredients of solid mechanics.

George Whitesides has published over 1,100 papers.  In 2004 he published a three-page essay “Whitesides’ Group:  Writing a Paper”.  I have been asking all my students to study this essay when they begin to work with me.  Now you can watch Whitesides on video explaining his approach to publishing papers.    

These notes are part of a graduate course on advanced elasticity.

In teaching the elements of thermodynamics in the graduate course on soft active materials, I have followed this sequence:

For the third time I am teaching the graduate course on soft active materials.  This course is called Advanced Elasticity in the Catalog of Courses.  In the last several years, I have dropped several traditional topics, and focused on thermodynamics and finite deformation.  I have added several topics where both thermodynamics and finite deformation play significant roles, such as elastomeric gels and dielectric elastomers.

The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (HSEAS) seeks applicants for an appointment at the level of tenured professor in the field of computational mechanical and materials engineering. The ideal candidate will have high expertise in computation, and will also have a demonstrated commitment to significant and innovative applications in mechanical engineering and/or materials engineering.

I have been asking colleagues this question for some time.  I was a Ph.D. student of John W. Hutchinson, who was a Ph.D. student of Bernard Budiansky, who was a Ph.D. student of William Prager.  But for years, the Mathematics Genealogy Project listed the advisor for Prager as “unknown”.

I have just volunteered to teach engineering thermodynamics to undergraduates in the Fall semester of 2011.  The students will be from all fields of engineering, primarily mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, and bioengineering.  I have never taught this course before, and would love to hear from you about your experience, either as a student or as a teacher. 

Here is what I have found from the website about the course.

Engineering Science 181 Engineering Thermodynamics

The latest issue of the WW-EAP Newsletter is now available.  I’m pleased that the issue includes my submission on a recently completed review on the Theory of Dielectric Elastomers.  As usual, the Newsletter contains lots of extremely valuable information, such as new books in the field, and new products.

In 2008 I wrote about ResearcherID, a service provided by the publisher of the Web of Science.  The service is now used by many mechanicians.  Here are several examples:

In response to a stimulus, a soft material deforms, and the deformation provides a function. We call such a material a soft active material (SAM). This review focuses on one class of soft active materials: dielectric elastomers. Subject to a voltage, a membrane of a dielectric elastomer reduces thickness and expands area, possibly straining over 100%. The phenomenon is being developed as transducers for broad applications, including soft robots, adaptive optics, Braille displays, and electric generators.

The "Bird Nest Plan" Research Center aiming at recruiting and nurturing young future leaders in emerging interdisciplinary science and technology has recently been launched at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST).

This report will appear in the 2010 Newsletter of the Applied Mechanics Division, of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

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.

Professor Wolfgang Knauss, of the California Institute of Technology, is selected to receive the 2010 Timoshenko Medal.

Professor Nicolas Triantafyllidis, of Ecole Polytechnique and the University of Michigan, is selected to receive the 2010 Warner T. Koiter Medal.

Professor Rohan Abeyaratne, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is selected to receive the 2010 Daniel C. Drucker Medal.

These notes belong to a course on fracture mechanics

A body consists of two materials bonded at an interface. On the interface there is a crack. The body is subject to a load, causing the two faces of the crack to open and slide relative to each other. When the load reaches a critical level, the crack either extends along the interface, or kinks out of the interface.

These notes belong to a course on fracture mechanics

A crack pre-exists in a body. When the body is loaded, the two faces of the crack may simultaneously open and slide relative to each other. The crack is said to be under a mixed-mode condition. When the load reaches a critical level, the crack starts to grow, and usually kinks into a new direction. Subsequently the crack often grows along a curved path.