research

Under the actions of internal pressure and electric voltage, a spherical dielectric elastomer balloon usually keeps a sphere during its deformation, which has also been assumed in many previous studies. In this article, using linear perturbation analysis, we demonstrate that a spherical dielectric elastomer balloon may bifurcate to a nonspherical shape under certain electromechanical loading conditions.

EML Special Issue on 3D Assembly by Cutting, Bending and Folding

When patterned with different materials, gradients or cut-outs, thin structures such as sheets and rods can bend or fold either spontaneously or by actuation in response to a force or stimulus to form a pre-designed three dimensional structure. This special issue addresses the design and mechanics of these structures with a special emphasis on programmability and non-linearity.  

Manuscript Submission:

The J-integral based criterion is widely used in elastic-plastic fracture mechanics. However, it is not rigorously applicable when plastic unloading appears during crack propagation. One difficulty is that the energy density with plastic unloading in the J-integral cannot be defined unambiguously.

Soft materials including elastomers and gels are pervasive in biological systems and technological applications. Whereas it is known that intrinsic fracture energies of soft materials are relatively low, how the intrinsic fracture energy cooperates with mechanical dissipation in process zone to give high fracture toughness of soft materials is not well understood. In addition, it is still challenging to predict fracture energies and crack-tip strain fields of soft tough materials.

Journal Tittle: Advances in Mechanics

Tittle: Magneto-sensitive smart soft material and magnetorheological mechanism

Author: Yangguang XU¹, Xinglong GONG², Qiang WAN¹, Taixiang LIU³, Shouhu XUAN²

Affiliation: 

Journal Tittle: Advances in Mechanics

Tittle: Research progress on the mechanics of high speed rails