research

All metallic, hollow sandwich cylinders having ultralight two-dimensional prismatic cores are optimally designed for maximum thermo-mechanical performance at minimum mass. The heated cylinder is subjected to uniform internal pressure and actively cooled by forced air convection. The use of two different core topologies is exploited: square- and triangular-celled cores. The minimum mass design model is so defined that three failure modes are prevented: facesheet yielding, core member yielding, and core member buckling.

Dr. Jun Lou and Dr. Junlan Wang are co-editing a special issue on Nanomechanics and Nanostructured Multifunctional Materials: Experiments, Theories, and Simulations for Journal of Nanomaterials, an open access journal. Papers on latest developments on all aspects of nanomechanics and nanostructured materials are welcome. Deadline for manuscript submission is September 01, 2007.

 

For more details, please check JNM website

Apply for NSF fellowships to attend 1-week long workshop on cell mechanics, July 31-Aug 3, 2007.

Check out www.ccm.uiuc.edu  

Depolarization field and misfit strain are two important factors that may greatly influence the properties of ferroelectric thin films. The effect of depolarization field on polarization states of single-domain ferroelectric thin films with nonequally biaxial in-plane misfit strains are studied in the present work by numerically solving three coupled Euler-Lagrange equations, which are derived from the minimization of total free energy.

We have recently reported the label-free detection of HCV (Hepatitis C Virus) helicase by using a resonating microcantilever whose surface is functionalized by RNA aptamers as receptor molecules. This work was accepted for publication at Biosensors & Bioelectronics.

Abstract

Abstract 

We study the kinetics of phase transformations in solids using the peridynamic formulation of continuum mechanics. The peridynamic theory is a nonlocal formulation that does not involve spatial derivatives, and is a powerful tool to study defects such as cracks and interfaces.

      This letter describes a method to analyze electromechanical stability of dielectric elastomer actuators.  We write the free energy of an actuator using stretches and nominal electric displacement as generalized coordinates, and pre-stresses and voltage as control parameters.  When the Hessian of the free-energy function ceases to be positive-definite, the actuator thins down drastically, often resulting in electrical breakdown.  Our calculation shows that stability of the actuator is markedly enhanced by pre-stresses.