Thematic session on Contact Mechanics @ EMMC 2018, Nantes

Abstract submission for the European Mechanics of Materials Conference (Nantes, 26-28 March 2018) is open, with deadline at the end of September 2017.

https://emmc16.sciencesconf.org/resource/page/id/8

Contributions are welcome for the following thematic session organized by Marco Paggi (IMT Lucca) and Jean-Francois Molinari (EPFL):

 S13 Mechanics of discrete systems (incl. granular media, tribology, scratch, indentation, adhesion)

The subject of contact mechanics may trace his roots in the 19th Century. Since then, a huge progress has been achieved, primarily associated with contact problems in statics and dynamics involving friction, adhesion, wear, roughness, heat or electric conduction, and also with materials not only linear elastic. Principles of contacts mechanics can be applied in many traditional mechanical engineering areas such as locomotive wheel-rail contact, coupling devices, braking systems, tires, bearings, combustion engines, mechanical linkages, gasket seals, metal forming, ultrasonic welding, electrical contacts, and many others. Current challenges in the field regard the extension of contact mechanics methodologies to the micro- and the nano-scale, to coupled multi-field problems, and the application to biological systems characterized by finite elasticity.
The main objective of this symposium is to gather together specialists on theoretical, numerical and experimental modelling of contact problems in nature and technology, with also special attention to innovative interdisciplinary research. Industrial applications of contact mechanics and the presentation of case studies of technological relevance are invited too.