While stacked objects are ubiquitous, there are few works devoted to modeling their dynamics. In a new paper “On the Dynamics of a Collapsing Stack of Blocks”, coauthored with Theresa Honein we use a generalized alpha numerical method developed by Capobianco et al [1] to simulate the collapse. The examples we consider include the Leaning Tower of Lyre and the collapse of a stack of blocks that is produced by harmonic excitation of a foundation.
Dear Colleague,
If you have an account on Bluesky posting about mechanics and academic life, please reach out to me
https://bsky.app/profile/oliveroreilly.bsky.social
If you are already there, please reach out. I hope in time, there will be a community of mechanicans on Bluesky sharing posts and thoughts about their academic lives and research.
Best wishes,
Oliver
A common, yet hazardous, method of transporting cylindrical tanks used to carry compressed gas involves rolling both tanks at opposite angles of inclination to the vertical. By propelling one of the tanks while maintaining point contact between the tanks, both tanks can be moved such that their centers of mass move in a straight line as demonstrated in the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgn5fv__LAk
In a paper that has just been published
Dear Colleague,
I'm delighted to be able to inform you about two tenure-track faculty searches at UC Berkeley. Details on the searches can be found below.
I would appreciate your help promoting these opportunities in your communities.
Best wishes,
Oliver
Dear Colleague,
Imagine rolling a tennis ball on a table top so that the center of the ball returns to its original location. Surprisingly, the orientation of the ball will have changed - something you can notice by looking at the branding markings on the ball. This phenomenon is known as a holonomy. Holonomy is also exhibited by the BB-8 robot: as it moves around a room and returns to its original location, the orientation of its spherical part will have changed albeit camouflaged by the ingenious magnetic mechanism used to orient its head.
Dear Colleague,
I'm pleased to annouced that my home department of Mechanical Engineering has an opening for a tenure-track position in the area of Advanced Manufacturing. All qualified applicants working on contemporary topics in Advanced Manufacturing will be considered, with example areas of interest including additive manufacturing, micro/nano fabrication, processing of electronic materials, processing of biomaterials, and sustainable materials and processes.
For additional information on the position, please see the website below:
Dear Colleagues,
I'm delighted to promote searches for three faculty positions in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley:
Dear Colleague,
I'm pleased to announce our latest paper on configurational mechanics has just appeared in Acta Mechanica:
Nathaniel N. Goldberg and Oliver M. O’Reilly. A Material Momentum Balance Law for Shells and Plates with Application to Phase Transformations and Adhesion. Acta Mechanica, 2022.
Open Access is kindly provided by UC Berkeley Library.
Dear Colleague
Our (open access) paper on the post-touchdown dynamics of an electrostatically actuated MEMS device has just appeared in IJSS:
Nate N. Goldberg and Oliver M. O'Reilly, Electrostatically actuated MEMS in the post-touchdown regime: The thin-dielectric limit and a novel reduced-order model for release dynamics"
Graphical Abstract can be found here
Dear Colleague,
I'm delighted to annouce that Alain Goriely (Oxford U) is visiting the Department of Mechanical Engineering, UC Berkeley as a Russell Severence Springer Lecturer.
He will be giving a colloquium later today and lectures in the coming weeks that are remotely accessible via the zoom link:
https://berkeley.zoom.us/j/95721081399
