research

Following the previous Blog entry on 3D fracture and out-of-plane crack structures: the essential role of material disorder, we add here a related manuscript (see also attached PDF):

Size selection of crack front defects: Multiple fracture-plane interactions and intrinsic lengthscales

EML Webinar (Young Researchers Forum) on 18 April 2024 will be given by Tongqing Lu at Xi'an Jiaotong University

Title: High throughput rupture experiments of soft materials

Discussion leader: Zhigang Suo, Harvard University

In classical experiments, it has been found that a rigid cylinder can roll both on and under an inclined rubber plane with a friction force that depends on a power law of velocity, independent of the sign of the normal force. Further, contact area increases significantly with velocity with a related power law.

In this pair of preprints (see also attached PDFs):

Quenched disorder and instability control dynamic fracture in three dimensions

Facet formation in slow three-dimensional fracture

Dear Colleagues,

The International Journal of Solids and Structures is pleased to institute an annual Best Paper Award for Young Investigators. The award will be given annually to a paper published in the previous year whose principal or corresponding author is under the age of 38 or within 10 years of the completion of their PhD.

Hard-magnetic soft materials (HMSMs) consisting of an elastomer matrix filled with high remnant magnetic particles can exhibit flexible programmability and rapid shape changing under non-contact activation, showing promising potential applications in soft robotics, biomedical devices and flexible electronics. Precise predictions of large deformations of hard-magnetic soft materials would be a key for relevant applications.

One the main challenges of developing data-driven models is the data-hungry nature of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). In our recent paper, we introduced a data augmentation approach to expand a small original dataset without conducting extra expensive high-fidelity simulations. We then used the original and augmented datasets for developing ANN models for non-linear path dependent composites. The obtained results showed the great impact of the data augmentation approach on the accuracy of the data-driven models.

I am happy to share our paper entitled "Mechanisms of failure of aluminium-based Whipple shields under hypervelocity impact: insights from continuum simulations" published recently in Springer Nature journal Acta Mechanica.

Jie Ma, Xizhe Zhang, Daochen Yin, Yijie Cai, Zihang Shen, Zhi Sheng, Jiabao Bai, Shaoxing Qu, Shuze Zhu*, Zheng Jia*, Designing ultratough single-network hydrogels with centimeter-scale fractocohesive lengths via inelastic crack blunting, Advanced Materials, 2311795, 2024

Petals and leaves are usually curled and exhibit intriguing morphology evolution upon growth, which contributes to their important biological functions. To understand the underlying morphoelastic mechanism and to determine the crucial factors that govern the growth-induced instability patterning in curved petals and leaves, we develop an active thin shell model that can describe variable curvatures and spontaneous growth, within the framework of general differential geometry based on curvilinear coordinates and hyperelastic deformation theory.

I would like to share our following paper published recently in International Journal of Plasticity:

Modeling and simulation of dynamic compression of Bulk Metallic Glasses at room and elevated temperatures using split Hopkinson pressure bar setup

Our recent paper is accessible freely for 50 days from this link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1iaz87NHxQgzz

The problem of the detachment of a flat indenter from a plane adhesive viscoelastic strip of thickness “b” is studied.

If you have NSF-funded projects, please encourage your students to submit posters to ASME IMECE topic 16-1 and 16-2 (REU only)! NSF provides 30+ travel awards ($1200 each) to cover student travel cost, plus chances to win poster competition awards.

Journal Club for February 2024: Mechanics in Solid-State Batteries: Mechanical Properties, Interfacial Failure, and Multiphysics Modeling

Wei Li=, Ruqing Fang=, Junning Jiao, Juner Zhu*

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University

* Corresponding author: j.zhu@northeastern.edu
= Authors with equal contributions to this article

1. General introduction

By considering the frictional sliding of randomly distributed entanglements within the polymer network upon mechanical stretches, we develop a constitutive theory to describe the large stretch behaviors of highly entangled hydrogels. 

doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10483-024-3076-8