opinion

 Dielectric elastomer can undergo giant deformation, but are susceptive to various failure modes. i.e electrical breakdown.

Some experimental papers (Kofod, Plante, Chen, see the attachment) reported the dielectric strength of VHB material (a kind of dielectric elastomer) under difference pre-stretch, equal bi-axially or unequal bi-axially. And the strength (maximum voltage can be applied before breakdown) has be greatly improved by these mechanical stretches.

 So here comes the question: is the dielectric strength dependent or independent of stretch？

This month's issue of SIAM news had a beautiful story of how one hard problem in mathematics was solved in less than six weeks using online collaboration. SIAM's story is not online yet, but here is another link to the same story .   SIAM news refers to a "super-mathematician" coming out of several individual mathematician spread all over the world.

This issue of CAM digest re-published D.N. Arnold's article  "Integrity under Attack - the state of scholarly publishing". The orginal article is available via weblink

http://www.ima.umn.edu/~arnold/siam-columns/integrity-under-attack.pdf

The study of cellular solids is greatly influenced by the honeycomb. However, the honeycomb is not a component as whole for bees. Instead, the bee only care the shape and mechanical property of the cells, but in the engineering field, a cell of honeycomb is seldom used. We use them as plate, shell and so on. I think we ignore another porous material called cocoons, the protection to the most fragile period of insects. It is always bearing the load as a whole component.

Dear all

I want to start modeling the Hyper foam behavior in abaqus software, it is very usefull for me to consult with someone who works on that.

Regards

Babak