Options
2005
Journal Article
Titel
New directions in mechanics
Abstract
The Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering of the US Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored a workshop to identify cutting-edge research needs and opportunities, enabled by the application of theoretical and applied mechanics. The workshop also included input from biochemical, surface science, and computational disciplines, on approaching scientific issues at the nanoscale, and the linkage of atomistics-scale with nano-, meso-, and continuum-scale mechanics. This paper is a summary of the outcome of the workshop, consisting of three main sections, each put together by a term of workshop participants. Section 1 addresses research opportunities that can be realized by the application of mechanics fundament als to the general area of self-assembly, directed self-assembly, and fluidics. Section 2 examines the role of mechanics in biological, bioinspired, and biohybrid material systems, closely relating to and complementing the material covered in Section 1. In this manner, it was made clear that mechanics plays a fundamental role in understanding the biological functions at all scales, in seeking to utilize biology and biological techniques to develop new materials and devices, and in the general area of bionanotechnology. While direct observational investigations are an essential ingredient of new discoveries and will continue to open new exciting research doors, it is the basic need for controlled experimenation and fundamentally-based modeling and computational simulations that will be truly empowered by a systematic use of the fundamentals of mechanics. Section 3 brings into focus new challenging issues in inelastic deformation and fracturing of materials that have emerged as a result of the development of nanodevices, biopolymers, and hybrid bio-abio systems. Each section begins with some introductory overview comments, and then provides illustrative examples that were presented at the workshop and which are believed to highlight the enabling research areas and, particularly, the impact that mechanics can make in enhancing the fundamental understanding that can lead to new technologies.
Author(s)
Kassner, M.E.
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, 430 Olin Hall, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Nemat-Nasser, S.
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
Suo, Z.
Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Bao, G.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0535, USA
Barbour, J.C.
Department of Nanostructure and Semiconductor Physics, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87185-1415, USA
Brinson, L.C.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-3111, USA
Espinosa, H.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-3111, USA
Granick, S.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois, 106 Materials Research Laboratory, 104 South Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Knauss, W.
GALCIT, Mail code 105-50, 1201 E. California Blvd. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Kubin, L.
Laboratoire dâEtude des Microstructures, 29 An. De la Division Leclerc, CNRS/ONERA, BP 72 Chatillon, CEDEX 92322, France
Langer, J.
Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9530, USA
Mahadevan, L.
Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Torquato, S.
Department of Chemistry and Princeton Materials Institute, Princeton University, Princton, NJ, USA