Blog posts

Post-doc at the University of Liège : Simulation of micro/nano-structured materials described by 3D tomography

The tasks involved in this position include geometrical analysis of the

3D images, generation of datasets which are suitable for the computations

(meshes, level-sets fields ...), computations using novel numerical techniques

(X-FEM and related)

More details & contact information at  http://www.cgeo.ulg.ac.be/post-doc.pdf

The University of Chile invites applications for three full time tenure-track faculty positions in Mechanical Engineering. Applicants must have deep interest in undergraduate and graduate teaching, as well as the purpose to conduct long-term, externally funded research programs at international level. Candidates are also expected to maintain fruitful work relationships with industry in their respective areas. According to qualifications, they may be ranked at the Assistant or Associate Professor level.

Candidates are sought in three areas:

Strength of graphenes containing randomly dispersed vacancies

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.

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.