Dominik Schillinger, doctoral candidate of IGSSE project team MAC B7 (High-End Toolbox for Simulation and Optimisation of Multi-Physics PDE Models) won the sixth John Argyris Award for the best paper by a young researcher in the field of Computational Mechanics! His paper An Isogeometric Design-through-analysis Methodology based on Adaptive Hierarchical Refinement of NURBS, Immersed Boundary Methods, and T-spline CAD Surfaces has been published in the journal Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering.

To read more about Dr Colette, from the University of University of Michigan, go to the Ocean Engineering homepage: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ocean-engineering/journal-news/deputy-chief-editor-appointed/

A post-doctoral position is available at our continuum mechanics workgroup (Prof. Tsakmakis, TU Darmstadt, Germany) for developing user subroutines and user elements in finite element programs.

Experience in nonlinear finite element analysis, numerical methods in solid mechanics and FORTRAN 90 is needed.

If you are interested, please contact me, Dr. C. Broese,  broese [at] mechanik.tu-darmstadt.de

(Opening date: June, 1st 2012 - Closing date: June, 30th 2012)

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is seeking to fill a Lecturer position in structural engineering with the opportunity to build strong ties with MIT Department of Architecture. Position is full-time for a three-year period starting September 1, 2012.

A report published in Procedia Engineering suggests that the 'phenomenon of swing bowling, in which a cricket ball veers sideways during flight, is not influenced by humidity'...

To read the full BBC article, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18262145

To read the Procedia report, go to http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705812016463

A postdoctoral fellowship funded by the US Air Force is available at the University of Southampton (UK) to work in the area of computational mechanics applied to biomimetics and bio-inspired structures for military applications. 



CLOSING DATE: 18 June 2012 (Earliest starting date: July 1st 2012)



ONLINE APPLICATION:

https://jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=121312BX

A nanocomposite electrical generator composed of an array of zinc oxide nanowires is considered.
The electric potential distribution along zinc oxide nanowires is modeled using continuum
mechanics and Maxwell’s equations for the case of axial loading. A perturbation technique is used
for decoupling the constitutive equations. The governing differential equations are solved using a
finite difference method. It is shown that a gradient of electric potential exists along the axis of the
zinc oxide nanowires. Maximum and minimum values of electric potential exist at the extreme ends
along the nanowire length and have opposite signs. The positive and negative voltages are separated

Dielectric elastomer transducers are often subject to large tensile stretches and are susceptible to rupture. Here we carry out an experimental study of the rupture behavior of membranes of an acrylic dielectric elastomer (VHB 4905). Pure-shear test specimens are used to measure force-displacement curves, using samples with and without pre-cracks. We find that introducing a pre-crack into a membrane drastically reduces the stretch at rupture. Furthermore, we measure the stretch at rupture and fracture energy using samples of different heights at various stretch-rates. The stretch at rupture is found to decrease with sample height, and the fracture energy is found to increase with stretch-rate.
This paper has appeared in the Journal of Applied Physics and can be downloaded from: