Dielectric elastomer (DE) is a kind of electroactive polymer material,
capable of large deformation up to 380%. However, under conservative
operating conditions, DE is susceptible to instability with a small
deformation due to various modes of failure, including electrical
breakdown, electromechanical instability (EMI), loss of tension and
rupture by stretch. This paper proposes a free energy model in the
thermodynamic system of DE involving thermoelastic strain energy,
electric energy and purely thermal contribution energy to obtain the
stability conditions of all failure modes. The numerical results
indicate that the increase in temperature can markedly contribute to
improving the entropy production, the actuation stress and the critical

(to appear in Quarterly of Applied Mathematics)

by Marshall Slemrod and Amit Acharya

Given an autonomous system of Ordinary Diff erential Equations without an a priori split into slow and fast components, we defi ne a strategy for producing a large class of `slow' variables (constants of fast motion) in a precise sense. The equation of evolution of any such slow variable is deduced. The strategy is to rewrite our system on an in finite dimensional "history" Hilbert space X and defi ne our coarse observation as a functional on X.

Nano Lett. DOI: 10.1021/nl202088h

I am looking for a Ph.D. student to work on geometric mechanics of growing bodies (both surface and bulk growth). Candidates with strong math and mechanics backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Interested candidates should email me (arash.yavari [at] ce.gatech.edu) their CV along with the names of three references.

This position has been filled.

There is an immediate opening for a postdoctoral research position in the Advanced Computational Research Laboratory at RPI, Troy NY to work on Multiscale Computational Mechanics. Encouraged to apply are creative, self-motivated candidates with a sound background in computational mechanics. RPI is home to the CCNI, one of the most powerful university-based super-computational research facilities in the world.



Qualifications:

1.    PhD in Computational/Applied Mechanics/ Computational Materials Science or related topic.

This paper uses the thermodynamic data of aqueous solutions of uncrosslinked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) to study the phase transition of PNIPAM hydrogels.  At a low temperature, uncrosslinked PNIPAM  can be dissolved in water and form a homogenous liquid  solution.  When the temperature is increased, the solution separates into two liquid phases with different concentrations of the polymer.   Covalently crosslinked PNIPAM, however, does not dissolve in water, but can imbibe water and form a hydrogel.  When the temperature is changed

Adv. Funct. Mater.  DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201101224

As one of the biggest Departments of its kind in the UK, the Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering has an international reputation for being at the forefront of technological innovation and for maintaining extensive links with industry.

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/mm/index.html