The outstanding and brilliantly written paper, "Modeling of Dynamic Mode I Crack Growth in Glass Fiber-reinforced Polymer Composites: Fracture Energy and Failure Mechanism" by Liu, Y, van der Meer, FP, Sluys, LJ and Ke, L, Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 243, 2021, applies a numerical model to study the dynamics of a crack propagating in a glass fiber reinforced polymer. The paper is a school example of how a paper should be written. Everything is well described and carefully arranged in logical order.

If you are curious about application of machine learning techniques in mechanics problems, our latest paper is probably interesting for you. In this paper, we are proposing a micromechanics-based artificial neural networks model for short fiber composites. You can find the paper here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359836821001281 

Dear iMechanicians, 

The 19th National Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (USNC/TAM) will be hosted by the University of Texas at Austin, at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center from June 19-24 in 2022. Proposals are now invited to organize symposia at the 19th USNC/TAM. For more information, go to: http://www.usnctam2022.org/.

The Journal Club for April 2021 presents a concise review of the so-called variational phase-field fracture theory for brittle and cohesive fracture. Topics include the pioneering work of Griffith on brittle fracture in 1920, Barenblatt's cohesive zone model in 1959, to Marigo/Francfort's variational formulation of Griffith's brittle fracture 78 years later and the Bourdin's phase-field regularisation of MF's model. Also discussed is recent models for cohesive fracture, the role of the length scale parameter, solver for the coupled PDEs and some applications.

Dear Colleagues,

We mourn the death of Arthur Peter “Art” Boresi, professor emeritus of civil and architectural engineering at the University of Wyoming, Laramie, and formerly of theoretical and applied mechanics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who died February 15, 2021, at age 96 at Laramie.

Please find attached a tribute to Art, written by his colleagues James W. Phillips (UIUC), Richard J. Schmidt (U. of Wyoming) and Ken P. Chong (George Washington U).

Sincerely,

Yuri Bazilevs

Chair, ASME Applied Mechanics Division

Dear Mechanicians, dear colleagues, dear authors and readers of scientific publications,

We are very happy to inform you that the first overlay journal in mechanics, which was launched in August 2020, has just published its first paper.

Doitrand, A., Henry, R. & Meille, S. Brittle material strength and fracture toughness estimation from four-point bending test, Journal of Theoretical, Computational and Applied Mechanics, Mar 2021. DOI: 10.46298/jtcam.6753. It is attached below.