This is the pdf file for the final project given by Andew and Lei.

Andrew and I decided to work on some design topics.

Given a reference domain, some boundary conditions and a limited amount of material, which can not fill the whole domain, we want to determine the material distribution inside the domain so that the structure generated will contain the minimum elastic energy. This is called minimum compliance problem, a topic in the field of topology optimization.

Our initial goal is to implement the numerical methods in this field to the interesting examples offered in our class, such as the wall cylinder and the plate under distributed pressure, and then analyse the computational results. If time permits, we will consider other optimization objects beside the elastic energy.
 

I find the book , An Introduction to the mechanics of solids , is very helpful to me.

 It is written by Stephen H. Crandall and Thomas Lardner .

 This book offers detailed discussion on modeling, placing emphasis on where the equations come from and why some variable should be zero or can be ignored. Thus I can learn not only the derivation but also the mechanical insight.

Prior courses in solid mechanics : None.

Undergraduate major: Computational Mathematics

My strength related to this course: familiar with linear algebra and mulitivariables calculus

My weakness related to this course: poor intuition for mechanics models

Research group: Prof. Radovitzky's computational solid mechancis group at MIT

http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/people/radovitzky/

Research direction: to implement discontinuous Galerkin method into solid mechanics, especially for strain gradient theory

This course will give me lots of knowledge and insight for solid mechacis models

I will study some other mechancis courses, and this course is a start point.