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1D Plasticity - Isotropic hardening, tutorial with examples.

Submitted by yawlou on

For those who may be interested,

 I have put together a paper describing 1D plasticity for a variety of cases of isotropic hardening.  The material is not new, but hopefully it is written with enough detail that it will help beginners learn some basics of computational plasticity.  The notation and material closely follows "Computational Inelasticity" written by Simo and Hughes.

First order linear system

Submitted by D Rabinovich on

A linear (hyperbolic) first-order system has to be solved using Finite Elements.

As I understand usually non-standard discretizations are used in this case (Discontinuous Galerkin for example).

What is the reason for this? Can such an equation be modeled using standard Galerkin methods (say, linear finite elements)? 

Would standard Galerkin discretization cause instability of the solution?

Thanks,

Daniel

Spring stiffness of a helical spring

Submitted by Biswajit Banerjee on

Once in a while I have to find the stiffness of a spring that I get from the local hardware shop.  I usually use a formula that can be found in some books on mechanics of materials.

But the assumptions bother me a bit because the springs that I used usually underwent large deformations and I wasn't sure whether the numbers I was using were correct or not.  

To check the formula I compared its predicted k to numbers from Abaqus simulations and found reasonably good results for many situations - but not for soft springs.

Looking for a PhD student

Submitted by pschiavone on

I'm looking for a PhD student to work in the area of solid mechanics, specifically applied mathematics in linear elasticity using complex variable methods and/or boundary integral equation methods.

I'm a professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (although I am an applied mathematician by training).

You can find out more at:  www.mece.ualberta.ca/~schiavone/schiavon.htm

A mathematician's take on "what is light?"

Submitted by Amit Acharya on

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.

Mechanics in space (and High School): Lego Man's balloon voyage, or Lego Man in space

Submitted by ikpuri on

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..."

Fracture and contact mechanics for interface problems: a special issue of EFM

Submitted by marco.paggi on

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.