research

VEMLab: a MATLAB library for the virtual element method

Release of VEMLab v2.1

>>  From VEMLab v2.0.2 to VEMLab v2.1:

- Add customized wrench domain (for PolyMesher mesh generator only).

- Add customized plate with a hole domain (for PolyMesher mesh generator only).

- Add the following test: “square_plate_with_source2_poisson2d.m” in test folder.

Simpleware software user Dr. Llion Evans of Swansea University and the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy has received £1 million in funding for a five-year project into virtual testing of new components. Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the research looks at how image-based simulation using 3D X-ray imaging can virtually evaluate manufactured components.

A new book, A Primer on the Kinematics of Discrete Elastic Rods, has just been published by Springer and is freely accessible to faculty and students at

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-76965-3

A “flutter machine” is introduced for the investigation of a singular interface between the classical and reversible Hopf bifurcations that is theoretically predicted to be generic in nonconservative reversible systems with vanishing dissipation. In particular, such a singular interface exists for the Pflüger viscoelastic column moving in a resistive medium, which is proven by means of the perturbation theory of multiple eigenvalues with the Jordan block.

I have 2 questions regarding GTN model.

1) What does q1, q2, q3 signify in GTN damage model? What are their physical meanings. I know only their numerical values.
2) How to deal with the problem of GTN in Compression? It is working fine with tension but while in compression it is unable to converge.

We introduce a novel meshfree Galerkin method for the solution of Reissner-Mindlin plate problems that is written in terms of the primitive variables only (i.e., rotations and transverse displacement) and is devoid of shear-locking.

We recently characterized a unique material developed from root structure (Mycelium) of mushroom. Mycelium has a filamentous network structure with mechanics largely controlled by filament elasticity and branching, and network density. We report the morphological and mechanical characterization of mycelium. The monotonic mechanical behavior of the mycelium is non-linear both in tension and compression.

The 7th edition of the International Conference on Fatigue of Composites is going to be held in Vicenza (Italy) from 4th to 6th of July 2018. The conference is organized by the Department of Management and Engineering at the University of Padova, under the patronage of the European Society for Composite Materials, the Committee on Composite Materials of the Japan Society of Material Science, the Italian Association for Stress Analysis and the Italian Group of Fracture.

Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids

Available online 5 March 2018

In Press, Accepted Manuscript — Note to users

The phenomenon of gimbal lock rose in prominence during the time  of NASA's Apollo program. Inside the inertial measurement unit of the Apollo spacecraft was a stable (inertial) platform about which the spacecraft rotated. The hinged platform was suspended in two gimbals to give it three degrees of freedom. Its role was to give an accurate measure of the spacecraft's orientation. At a particular orientation of the spacecraft, the gimbals became coplanar and control torques became ineffective at stabilizing the platform.

We present a numerical method which exploits the biorthogonal interpolating wavelet family, and second-generation wavelets, to solve initial–boundary value problems on finite domains. Our predictor-corrector algorithm constructs a dynamically adaptive computational grid with significant data compression, and provides explicit error control. Error estimates are provided for the wavelet representation of functions, their derivatives, and the nonlinear product of functions.