Blog posts

Anomalous scaling law of strength and toughness of cellulose nanopaper, Zhu, et al., Li, PNAS, 2015

Novelty/impact/significance:

A cellulose-based nanopaper that shows a scaling law of a simultaneous, substantial increase of strength and toughness as the cellulose fiber sizes decrease from 27 µm to 11 nm is developed. The mechanism includes the reduced intrinsic defect size and, more importantly, the repeated (re)forming of hydrogen bonding, a design/optimization strategy applicable to wide materials systems.

The second deadline to apply for a PhD position in Mathematical Analysis, Modelling and Applications at SISSA (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati - www.sissa.it) is August 20, 2020 at noon (Rome time). There are 5 PhD grants available.

Dear iMechanica researchers,

I'd like to share an opinion paper that was written by Rui Huang, Kenneth Liechti, Nanshu Lu, and I for Current Opinion in Solid State & Materials Science. The aim is to discuss the mechanics research on 2D material interfaces in terms of recent developments and appeared challenges and opportunities. Here is the link; Below, I also attached a copy of the manuscript and pasted the Abstract.

I have a postdoc position for a project involving the design of bioinspired composites for real applications.

In the case of orthotropic materials like wood or composites, transverse shear has an effect on the modulus determination by bending tests. A procedure based on three-point bending is proposed. The experimental data required are the load and displacement given by the testing machine. The novelties of the proposal are:

The Department of Engineering at Aarhus University has a number of open positions as Assistant Professor (tenure track) or Associate Professor at the Section of Mechanical Engineering. The University seeks innovative and visionary engineers/researchers capable of developing the research and teaching in Mechanical Engineering.

The positions are available from February 1, 2021 or as soon as possible hereafter.

Research focus

The electroadhesive contact between a conductive sphere with a rigid substrate, both coated with an electrically insulating layer is studied, by adopting two solution strategies: (i) a DMT approximation and (ii) an iterative finite element model which accounts for the effect of the electroadhesive tractions on the deformation of the elastic solids. The contact problem is solved by varying the applied voltage and the elastic modulus of the coating layer.

Transverse wrinkles commonly occur in a uniaxially tensile elastic membrane and can vanish upon excess stretching. The wrinkling direction is usually perpendicular to the stretching direction under isotropic elasticity. Here, we show that wrinkles are orientable by material anisotropy, such as in fiber-reinforced or fibrous films, and the wrinkling orientation can be tuned by varying the stiffness and direction of fibers.

Open PhD positions are available in the RAD Lab , in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The research will involve multiscale computational modeling of complex fluids and soft matters with particular emphasis on biological flows of active matter in the living systems and particle-laden multiphase flows. The desired start date is Spring 2021.  

PhD position is available in Flash X-ray radiography for impact/penetration experiments