Minisymposium on "Plasticity: Bridging the Scales from Micro to Macro" at IWCMM XXII, Baltimore, MD, USA (Sept. 24-26, 2012)

Dear friends and colleagues,

This is to inform you of the minisymposium

Plasticity: Bridging the Scales from Micro to Macro

to be organized at the 22nd International Workshop on Computational Mechanics of Materials (IWCMM XXII) and request you to consider submitting an abstract. The workshop will be held in Baltimore, MD, USA during September 24-26, 2012.

Abstract of Minisymposium:
With emerging needs of developing lightweight structures, conventional metals are being re-engineered to make them stiffer, stronger and more ductile. Unfortunately, it may not be possible to improve all of these attributes simultaneously. In fact, an improvement in one is usually at the cost of some of the other properties. For example, while it is common to observe impressive improvements in strength in metals by refining the grain size to the limit of amorphization, it usually comes at the cost of severe reduction in the ductility. Novel experimental techniques such as in-situ TEM imaging, micro-scale testing, etc., have enabled understanding of the size-dependent physics and mechanics of plasticity at fundamental length-scales. However, a critical evaluation of complicating aspects in plasticity becomes possible only through high-fidelity computational simulations. This is so because in experiments it may not be easy to isolate the synergies between different unit processes that contribute to the overall deformation.

A broad aim of this minisymposium is to bring together researchers from the engineering and physical sciences to create a forum that will discuss modern insights into the physics and mechanics of plasticity at multiple length- and time-scales. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to
- atomistics;
- discrete dislocation dynamics;
- crystal plasticity;
- homogenization techniques;
- interacting effects between dislocations and other defects (e.g. grain/ twin boundaries);
- hierarchical microstructures (e.g. nanotwinned metals, nanocomposites);
- bridging the scales.

Of particular interest are studies that attempt at synchronizing experimental multi-scale characterization and mechanism-based multi-scale models for plasticity at fundamental length-scales.

Abstract submission is now open and can be completed via http://iwcmm22.jhu.edu/abstract.html. Please indicate that the intended minisymposium is M.S.#13

Important dates:
Abstracts due: May 01, 2012
Acceptance notification: May 31, 2012
Early registration: TBA
Final registration: TBA

We look forward to your participation at IWCMM XXII.

Regards,
Organizers:

Shailendra P. Joshi
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National University of Singapore
Email: shailendra@nus.edu.sg
http://www.joshigroup.net

Jaafar El-Awady
Department of Mechanical Engineering
The Johns Hopkins University
Email: jelawady@jhu.edu
http://web1.johnshopkins.edu/comp_mat/

Amit Acharya
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Email: acharyaamit@cmu.edu
http://www.ce.cmu.edu/~amita/