With great pleasure I inform you that Yoichiro Matsumoto, of the University of Tokyo, is selected to receive the 2010 Ted Belytschko Applied Mechanics Award.

Hello,

 I am using abaqus to do research on polarization procedure of piezoelectric materials. I want to develop a user subroutine that can allow me to input variable piezoeletric material properties and do coupled problem. I want to know if UMAT can solve this problem or I need to use other subroutine. If there is that subroutine, what is it.  Any suggestion is appreciated.

 Thanks in advance,

Linhui Zhang

hello everyone,

I am trying to model a concrete element subjected to static load using Abaqus Standard. For concrete, I am using Concrete Damaged Plasticity and beam elements for my reinforcement. I am embedding my reinforcement into the concrete (host elements).

Since I started, I faced several issues. They are overconstraint, numerical singularity and negative eigen values. I managed to resolve both of them. However, the behavior from my model is nowhere near the experimental data that I have. It seems that the model is excessively stiff.

Harley T. Johnson has just been selected to receive the 2010 Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award.

I am writing on behalf of the Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award Committee: Zhigang Suo (Chair), Tayfun E. Tezduyar, Ares J. Rosakis, Kenneth M. Liechti, Lawrence A. Bergman, Daniel J. Inman, Krishnaswamy Ravi-Chandar, Thomas N. Farris, Wing Kam Liu, and Mary C. Boyce.

Converting the abundant energy from the sun into a form convenient for human use has been a long standing dream for sustainable generation of environmentally clean energy.  With the seminal discovery of water splitting by Fujishima and Honda in the early 1970s [1], titanium dioxide (TiO2), an inexpensive white pigment widely used in our daily life, emerged as the premier photocatalysts for enabling solar energy utilization. However, because of its wide intrinsic band gap, TiO2 can absorb only ultraviolet light. This results in less than 1% efficiency for solar energy conversion. Reducing the band gap of TiO2 is the main avenue for boosting the conversion efficiency. In a recent paper to appear in Phys Rev. Lett. [2], Zhu et

Tribology is defined as the science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion, which involves friction, wear and lubrication.

The term “tribology” was introduced in the 1960s by Prof. Peter Jost.  In the consequent decades, various aspects of interacting surfaces in relative motion have been the focus of tribology, including, for example, the tribology of automotive applications, microelectromechanical systems, magnetic storage devices, adhesive contact, micro/nanotribology, biotribology.

The Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin has a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level beginning September 2010 in the area of Mechanics of Solids, Structures and Materials.