Although this is a class in solid mechanics, I chose a project which focuses on fluid dynamics. I did this because I think this project will be very educational with respect to the Finite Element Analysis and mechanics in general.

Please see the attached file for details.

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The biology of the inversion process in Volvox carteri is examined, and a coupled mechanical and kinetic model is proposed.  See attached proposal for details. The presentation given is also attached here, as well as the final paper.  Also, a movie of the simulation that made all of the work wroth while, the inversion of a half-sphere, is attached here as well.  Note: The file inversion2bw.doc is a movie, just download it and change the extension to .avi.  This has to be done since iMechanica doesn't allow attachment of .avi files directly.

Updated on 11 October 2008.  Each student creates a distinct project that (a) addresses a phenomenon, and (b) involves a serious use of ABAQUS.   To get some inspiration, see projects of students who took this course in the past.

The project contributes 25% to the grade, distributed as follows.