An effective mechanism that generates large recoverable electric field induced strains in ferroelectric islands is studied by phase-field modeling. The large strains originate from the reversible 90° domain switching between a₁ (a₂) domains and c domains, driven by an applied electric field and an internal stress field. The electric field induced strains could be effectively controlled by the magnitude of island-substrate misfit and the aspect ratio of islands.

The paper could be download in the following link:

Model reduction based on Propper Orthogonal decomposition is widely used in Computational mechanics to reduce the number of degrees of freedom in systems. In the attached papers, we introduced a POD-based model reduction in a multiscale framework to significantly reduce the computations.

I am looking for a PhD student (RA) in Mechanical
Engineering to start in Sept. 2010. The topic is in modeling in tribology
(biomimetic surfaces, contact mechanics, adhesion). The initial support (RA) can be
provided via INSIC TAPE grant and other sources. Interested persons should send
their resume to me at nosonovs AT uwm.edu. The admission criteria for the PhD
degree can be found at http://www4.uwm.edu/ceas/current_students/graduate_students/index.cfm

Short Course on

Wave Propagation in Periodic Linear and Nonlinear Media

will be held at CISM, in Udine Italy (June 21-25, 2010). See course brochure attached

Massimo Ruzzene

A postdoctoral/PhD position in various non-equilibrium problems in solid mechanics is available at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Candidates should have a strong background in physics and/or theoretical mechanics, as well as experience with analytical and computational methods for solving partial differential equations. More details can be found in http://www.weizmann.ac.il/chemphys/bouchbinder/ For information about specific research projects, please send CV, a publications list and a statement of research interests to Dr.

In this letter we obtain the finite-temperature structure

of 180^o domain walls in PbTiO_3 using a quasi-harmonic

lattice dynamics approach. We obtain the temperature dependence of

the atomic structure of domain walls from 0 K up to room

temperature. We also show that both Pb-centered and Ti-centered

180^o domain walls are thicker at room temperature; domain

wall thickness at T=300 K is about three times larger than that of

T=0 K. Our calculations show that Ti-centered domain walls have a

This month's issue of SIAM news had a beautiful story of how one hard problem in mathematics was solved in less than six weeks using online collaboration. SIAM's story is not online yet, but here is another link to the same story .   SIAM news refers to a "super-mathematician" coming out of several individual mathematician spread all over the world.