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Hi,

I am working on a coupled fluid structure problem , precisley on the elasto-acoustic mode, of a system consist on a cube which define the fluid domain coupled with an elastic plate.

The boundry conditions is:

- all the face of the cube is regid only the face coupled with the plate

This model has a simple closed-form analytical expression, matching with finite element results nearly perfectly.

Ref: G. Feng, S. Qu, Y. Huang and W.D. Nix, An analytical expression for the stress field around an elastoplastic indentation/contact, Acta Materialia, V.55, 2007, P2929-2938. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2006.12.030

The molecular building blocks of a cell include:

♦ membrane components (e.g. fatty acids and phospholipids)
♦ biopolymers (e.g. proteins)
♦ genetic blueprint (e.g. DNA and RNA)

In a previous issue of the journal club, John Dolbow has discussed computational mechanics of biomembrane. I would like to discuss the mechanics issues of proteins and DNA (RNA) from an analytical perspective.

(PRB,74,245428,2006)  Based on a molecular mechanics concept, a nonlinear stick-spiral model is developed to investigate the mechanical behavior of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The model is capable of predicting not only the initial elastic properties (e.g., Young’s modulus) but also the stress-strain relations of a SWCNT under axial, radial, and torsion conditions. The elastic properties, ultimate stress, and failure strain under various loading conditions are discussed and special attentions have been paid to the effects of the tube chirality and tube size. Some unique mechanical behaviors of chiral SWCNTs, such as axial strain-induced torsion, circumferential strain-induced torsion, and shear strain-induced extension are also studied. The predicted results from the present model are in good agreement with existing data, but very little computational cost is needed to yield them.