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Lecture 7.  Stability of large scale yielding crack growth & fracture mechanisms

I am Nitin Sharma, enrolled as M.S. student in Mechanical Engg. at UNL. I did my B.Tech in Mechanical Engg. in India. Worked as an Application Engineer in CAE, for some years, before deciding to take sabbatical and head back to school. Other courses that I have taken in solid mechanics include Mechanics of Materials and Mechanics of Composite Materials (currently enrolled). I feel that my experience with Finite Element codes would help me simulate crack propogation numerically. However, coming back to school after a long time makes me little out of touch with some mathematical concepts.

My name is Ling Zhu and I am currently a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering of University of Nebraska Lincoln. I got my bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China and master degree in Engineering Mechanics from Zhejiang University, China. The research group I am now in is called Midwest Roadside Safety Facility ( mwrsf.unl.edu ) and I am doing the research of simulation of material failure. We are using nonlinear FE software LS-DYNA to simulate the design before performing real-life physical test to reduce the cost.

Point by point, here's the goods:

• I am currently enrolled at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
• Prior mechanics courses include: Mechanics of Materials, Advanced Mechanics of Materials, and I'm currently taking Mechanics of Composite Materials
• I received my Undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
• My strengths for this class...

My name is Jamilla Lutif. I am up to finish my Master in the Civil Engineering Department at UNL. My BS degree is also in Civil Engineering, and I got the BS degree at the Universidade federal do Ceara, in Brazil.

Dear all:

Please post your self-introduction online, following the instruction, but turn in the rest of your homework on paper to your teaching assistants.

Students from Harvard and MIT turn in homework to
Zhen Zhang, (617)-384-7894, zhangz [at] deas.harvard.edu (zhangz[at]deas[dot]harvard[dot]edu), Pierce Hall 406, Skype: flyinskypku.

My name is Nanshu Lu. I am a second year doctoral student in the Suo group at Harvard Engineering and Applied Science.

I obtained my B.S. in Solid Mechanics from the Department of Engineering Mechanics at Tsinghua University, China. You can see my resume here.

My course background includes Strength of Materials, Continuum Mechanics and Fundamental Elasticity taken at Tsinghua University and graduate level Elastisity (ES 240) taught by Prof. J. Rice, Deformation of Solids (APY 293) taught by Prof. F. Spaepen, Fracture (ES 247) and Plasticity (ES 246) taught by Prof. J. Vlassak and Zhigang's another course Advanced Elasticity (ES 241) this semester here at Harvard.

My first teaching experience was TFing Zhigang's ES 240 last semester.

Although I think I've indulged in a systematic cognition of solid mechanics with somewhat solid understanding of this subject, I sometimes do lack a spirit of digesting materials and making them my own. It indeed has occured to me that having a hard time to fish out the proper solution to a novel problem although I've owned all the needed tools and skills. Under the instruction of John and Zhigang I hope I will make the transformation from a student learner to a scholar learner.

Nonlinear fracture mechanics joints main parts of solid mechanics: fracture, elasticity and plasticity, the essential foundation to my research interests of mechanics in thin films, both theories and experiments. One of my subject is about chip packaging interaction. It is well known that nowadays a typical electronic package assembly consists of different materials which are attached together in a variety of ways. No other course will be more proper for this subject than this "Fracture mechanics of thin films and composit materials". Though I've read literatures specialized on thin film debonding I believe taking this course is the most efficient way for me to have profound and comprehensive understanding of fracture mechanics as a whole.