Most fracture classes and texts focus on the following different approaches: Griffith's energy approach, Irwin's stress intensity factor approach, the Barenblatt-Dugdale strip yield model (and subsequently, cohesive zone modeling) and Rice's J-Integral approach. As a graduate student studying fracture mechanics, I have often wondered why there seems to be very little discussion in the community with regard to Sih's strain energy density approach. Are there any fundamental limitations to the approach or are there "other" reasons behind this? Your thoughts are appreciated.

You may want to take a look of this newly published book entitled Mechanics of Microelectronics, which is

Series: Solid Mechanics and Its Applications , Vol. 141

Springer, May 2006

authored by G.Q. Zhang, W.D. van Driel, and X.J. Fan http://www.springer.com/east/home/engineering?SGWID=5-175-22-165281764-detailsPage=ppmmedia|toc

I would like to do lateral force microscopy on biological samples.  The more I look into it, it seems it is very difficult to calibrate AFM tips for lateral force microscopy.  Does anyone have any suggestions about how to calibrate tips and which tips are conducive for lateral AFM? 

If you are interested by the mechanics of elastomers, there is a dedicated conference for you : ECCMR 5, which will be held in Paris, France, 4-7 September 2007.

It is the fifth edition of the European Conference on Constitutive Models for Rubber Conference. The call for paper is now closed, but registration is still open.

See the conference web page: http://eccmr.egim-mrs.fr/

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has made a recent award to help increase graduate student participation at the Tenth Pan American Congress of Applied Mechanics (PACAM X).  These awards will be made in the form of mini-travel grants ($500 - $1,000) for exceptionally qualified students to participate in PACAM X January 7-11, 2008, in beautiful Cancun, Mexico.

As a member society of the U.S. National Committee on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (USNC/TAM) , the objective of the American Academy of Mechanics (AAM) is the advancement of the science and profession of mechanics.

The scope of AAM includes all of the disciplines involved in the modeling and study of the response of inanimate and animate matter to forces and environmental effects.

Elsevier-bashing has become a sport among researchers.  The company is singled out, among publishers of research journals, perhaps because it is the largest.  We might as well use Elsevier as a representative of the publishers, and hard-working people at Elsevier should not be offended. 

A Postdoc position is available at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, to work on the mechanics of biological cilia. In addition, a Ph.D. position is available to work on the mechanics of the cell's cytoskeleton. Both candidates should have a university-degree in biology, physics, materials science or mechanical engineering, with a strong affinity for theoretical/numerical modelling. For a more detailled description, see the attachments below.