Past Events

Past Events

osm intro slide

Start of Year Event

4.00pm, Wednesday, now 28 November

Seiminar Room One, Atrium, Department of Earth Sciences, South Parks Road

A set of short talks regarding relevant research taking place across the University and then drinks and nibbles.

Registration now closed

osm speaker

Mathematics & Mechanics: Natural Philosophy in the 21st Century

A Joint meeting of the Society for Natural Philosophy and the International Society for the Interaction of Mathematics and Mechanics with a special day in honour of Sir John Ball's 70th Birthday. Registration is free for OSM members, by writing an email to Dr. Nicola Kirkham at Nicola.Kirkham@maths.ox.ac.uk.

Mathematical Institute, Oxford

24th - 27th June 2018

Event website and registration

Wave Propagation and Dynamic Behaviour of Structures

2.00pm, Wednesday 6 June 2018

L5, Andrew Wiles Building, ROQ, Oxford

Speakers

2.00pm - Emmanuel David (Earth Sciences, UCL) Laboratory measurements of seismic velocities and attenuation in rocks

2.35pm - Sam Rigby (Engineering, Sheffield) - Characterisation of blast loading at the University of Sheffield

3.10pm - Michael Gomez (Mathematical Institute, Oxford) Anomalous dynamics of snap-through instabilities

3.45pm - Break

4.00pm - Michael Gray (IBME Oxford) Ultrasound interactions with biological systems: emerging applications in clinical targeted drug delivery

4.35pm - Bo Lan (Materials, Imperial College) Volumetric measurement of crystallographic texture using acoustic waves

5.10pm - Paula Koelemeijer (Earth Sciences, Oxford) Constraints on phase transitions in the deep mantle using Earth’s free oscillations

5.45pm - 6.30pm - Drinks reception

To register (now closed)

Plasticity and Fracture Mechanics

2.00pm, Wednesday 31 January 2018

LR2, Department of Engineering, Thom Building, Oxford

Speakers

2.00pm - Thomas Hudson (Mathematics Institute, Warwick) A rigorous approach to describing the mobility of screw dislocations

2.40pm - Mahmoud Mostafavi (Engineering, Bristol) Is energy release rate a material property

3.20pm - Chloe Coates (Chemistry, Oxford) Supramolecular springs as a motif for elastic recovery

3.40pm Tea break

4.00pm - David Wallis (Earth Sciences, Utrecht) A unified model for plasticity and creep based on the role of back stress

4.20pm - Phil Earp (Materials,Oxford) Investigating Plasticity in Alpha-Uranium with Neutron Diffraction

5.00pm - Enrico Salvati (Engineering, Oxford) Plasticity-Induced Crack Closure and Residual Stress Contributions to Fatigue Crack Retardation Following an Overload

 

To register (now closed)

OXFORD SOLID MECHANICS

WHO ARE WE?

WHAT DO WE DO?                         

COME ALONG AND FIND OUT!

L3, Andrew Wiles Building, Oxford

4.30pm, 22nd November 2017

Biomechanics, Bioengineering and Image Analysis Techniques

Friday 5 May 2017

L5, Andrew Wiles Building, University of Oxford

Francesc Levrero Florenciao (Oxford) Electromechanics of the human heart and its challenges
James Kwiecinski (Oxford) Self-assembly of a filament by curvature-inducing proteins
Thomas Lessinnes (EPFL) Effective properties of springs: a (new?) twist on the averag-ing method
Coffee Break
John Connell (UCL)
Pankaj Pankaj (Edinburgh) In silico modelling of the mechanical behaviour of bone

Registration now closed.

Microscopy, Materials and Energy

When: 4.00pm Friday 11 November 2016

Where: L3, Andrew Wiles Building, University of Oxford

4.00pm Nick Schryvers (University of Antwerp)

Applications of novel electron microscopy techniques for the understanding of solid mechanics The lecture will cover a variety of examples in which novel transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques have been used to provide better understanding of the behaviour of solid materials, with the emphasis on mechanics. The effect of cyclic compression on single grain Ni micropillars is investigated with orientation imaging microscopy, showing the creation of dislocation walls and reorientation of subgrains. Short range ordering in a Ni-Ti shape memory alloy is quantified by the observation of diffuse diffraction intensity and related to the change in martensitic transformation temperature during low temperature cycling. The effect of hydrogen on the mechanical behaviour of nanocrystalline Pd is investigated by atomic resolution TEM and in-situ nanomechanical testing. Atomic shifts at interfaces in oxides are quantified by aberration corrected TEM in combination with statistical parameter estimation and the response of polymer capsules in self-healing composite materials is described.

5.00pm Richard D James (University of Minnesota)

Materials and methods for the direct conversion of heat to electricity* There are enormous reservoirs of energy stored on earth at small temperature difference, including natural sources such as the temperature difference between ocean (~0 C) and ambient (-40 to -20 C) in the arctic, focused sources such as solar-thermal arrays, and man-made sources like the waste heat from power plants, air conditioners, computers and hand-held electronic devices. The conversion of this heat to useable forms of energy challenges basic thermodynamic concepts. Any such conversion device is necessarily of low efficiency, but is efficiency relevant when one is not paying for the heat? Some heat engines are highly efficient, but their ability to absorb significant amounts of heat is limited. We present a new family of methods for the direct conversion of heat to electricity using phase transformations in multiferroic materials. The lecture will focus on the basic theory of energy conversion by phase transformation and mathematical questions that arise from the analysis of these methods.

 

Workshop on Material Properties and Microstucture

When: 5 October 2016

Where: LR1, Department of Engineering Science, Oxford

Speakers:

  • Simone Falco (Engineering, Oxford)
  • Angkana Rueland (Maths, Oxford)
  • Matteo Taffetani (Maths, Oxford)
  • Yehven Zayachuk (Materials, Oxford)
  • Ed Tarleton (Materials, Oxford)
  • Roman Quey (CNRS, France)
  • Tuncay Yalcinkaya (Middle East Technical University, Ankara)

 

Conference on: Hysteresis, Avalanches and Interfaces in Solid Phase Transformations

When: 19 - 21 September 2016

Where: L3, Mathematical Institute, Oxford

Speakers:

 

Poster Session

There will be the opportunity for early career researchers (post-docs and graduate students) to present a poster of their work. To express an interest in presenting a poster please e-mail a brief title and abstract to solids@maths.ox.ac.uk by Thursday 30 June 2016.

 

Support for Early Career Researchers

Support for early career researchers (graduate students and post doctoral research assistants) will be provided for a limited number of delegates. Should you require support to attend the Conference please send details of your current institution, your current programme of study and statement of support from your supervisor to solids@maths.ox.ac.uk by Thursday 30 June 2016. Priority will be given to PhD students who intend to contribute a poster.

 

Registration

Registration is being provided via the University of Oxford's online store. The registration rate is £52.50 and includes lunch, morning and afternoon refreshments for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the conference. Register here.

When registering there is the opportunity to book a place at the conference dinner, which is being held at Green Templeton College on the evening of Tuesday 20 September. There are also some rooms being offered at St Peter's College in central Oxford, these can also be booked when registering.

The official announcement can be found here. And the official Poster here.

First Oxford Solid Mechanics event in 2016

When: 4.00 - 6.30pm, Thursday 11 February 2016

Where: L1 Department of Engineering Science,

4.00pm: Introduction to Oxford Solid Mechanics and presentation of research activities in:

  • Engineering Science (Antonio Pellegrino and Olga Barrera)
  • Materials (Ed Tarleton)
  • Mathematical Institute (Francesco Della Porta)
  • Physics (Matthew Suggit)
  • Chemistry (Christian van Engers)
  • Earth Science (Kuandai Leng)
  • NDORMS (Ying-chun Chen)

5.15pm: Poster session and refreshments

This event is free of charge. Thank you all for attending! Slides can be found here.

Mechanics of Cavitation Workshop

When: 2.30 - 5.30pm, Wednesday 25 November 2015

Where: L3 Mathematical Institute

2.30 - 3.20: Viggo Tvergaard (Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark)

Cavitation instabilities in elastic-plastic solids

3.20 - 4.10: Nava Setter (Ceramics Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)

Negative pressure in free standing particles and the resulting enhancement of properties

4.10 - 4.25: Coffee Break

4.25 - 5.15: Duvan Henao (Mathematics, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile)

A free-discontinuity model for void growth and coalescence in nonlinear elasticity

5.15: Drinks reception

Thank you all for coming! Slides of the talks can be found below.

Slides of Duvan's talk can be found here.

 

   

Workshop on Elastic Stability

When: Tuesday May 19

Where: L3, Andrew Wiles Building

14.30 Yi-Chao Chen (Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston)

Elastic stability, the energy criterion, and bifurcation theory (Slides)

 

15.15 John Biggins (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge)

Wrinkling, creasing and fingering in soft elastic layers

 

16.30 Peter-Palffy-Muhoray (Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University)

Dam deception: the magic of elasticity

 

17.15 Basile Audoly (Inst. de Mécanique d'Alembert, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris)

Elastic ribbons: models and stability

Abstracts can be found here.

 

Second Oxford Solid Mechanics event

The event is focused on EPSRC early-career fellowships. One of the EPSRC portfolio managers will come and give a talk on how to write a successful application.

The event will be held on the 20th March 2015, at the Mathematical Institute L2 at 9.45 am . Everybody is welcome: DPhil students, Postdocs and academics.

AGENDA

9.45am. Registration, Tea/coffee and pastries.

10.15am. Dr. Michael Ward, EPSRC Portfolio Manager, Mathematical Sciences

10.45am. Brief talks from EPSRC Postdoctoral and Early Career Fellowship holders.

This event is free of charge, if you are interested in attending this event please sign up at the doodle poll.

3rd LIMA Users Club Meeting

 

The Laboratory for In-situ Microscopy and Analysis (LIMA) is pleased to announce that it will hold its 3rd Users Club Meeting on Thursday, the 19th of March 2015 in the Department of Engineering Science (Lecture Room 3, Thom Building). Since its launch the Laboratory has enjoyed a number of exciting collaborations aimed at gaining further insight into fundamental aspects of material behaviour in areas ranging from Biology and Physics through to Engineering and Materials Science. This is a friendly and informal event, which presents an opportunity for past, current and future users and industrial partners to share their research, exchange ideas, etc. Refreshments will be provided and there will be an opportunity to visit the facility. If you would like to attend, please e-mail lima@eng.ox.ac.uk. For more information please visit Lima.

 

Solid Mechanics and Materials Engineering Group Seminar Series

 

Hilary Term 2015, Monday 2pm. Click here for details.

First Oxford Solid Mechanics (OSM) event of the year! (UPDATE)

 

Thank you all for coming to our first event. Click here to view all Slides.

 

The event was held on the

 

8th December 2014 at 4:30 pm in the Department of Engineering Science, Lecture Room 2.

 

We will present ongoing research activities within the seven departments involved in OSM and hopefully promote even more interdisciplinary solid mechanics research. DPhil, post docs and young academics are particularly encouraged to attend but anybody is welcome!

 

3rd International Workshop on Physics Based Material Models and Experimental Observations, 2-4 June 2014

This workshop is being held in Cesme-Izmir, Turkey and is funded by European Commission and co-organized by Joint Research Centre, University of Oxford, Middle East Technical University and Max Planck Institute. The objective is to discuss the present status of physics based constitutive modelling of materials and associated experimental methods. As well as oral and poster presentations by the participants, the workshop will include lectures by the following keynote speakers:

  • Alan Cocks (University of Oxford): Creep at the micro and macro scales,
  • Gerhard Dehm (Max-Planck Institute for Iron Research): Static and dynamic mechanical studies of micron-sized Cu performed at variable temperature,
  • Vikram Deshpande (University of Cambridge): Climb enabled discrete dislocation plasticity,
  • Norman Fleck (University of Cambridge): A critical review of strain gradient theory,
  • Marc Geers (Eindhoven University of Technology): Homogenizing metal plasticity: on the role of interfaces & dislocation climb,
  • Wolfgang Hoffelner (RWH Consult GmbH): Design Codes vs. Physics-based models: complementary or incompatible?,
  • Sandra Korte-Kerzel (RWTH Aachen): Plasticity in hard materials - testing at the microscale and high temperatures,
  • Daniel Rittel (Technion Israel Institute of Technology): Microstructural aspects of dynamic shear localisation in metals,
  • Maxime Sauzay (CEA Saclay): Micromechanical modelling of the mechanical behaviour of martensitic steels and comparison with experimental data,
  • Cynthia A. Volkert, (Georg-August-Universitat Göttingen): Dislocation nucleation-limited deformation in Au nanowires: experiments and simple models.

 

There is no registration fee for the workshop, and travel grants are available for participants from the target countries of the European Commssion's Enlargement and Integration Action. To register for this event, and for further information, please visit http://iwpmeo.org/.

Funding Opportunities for Early Career Researchers

Oxford Solid Mechanics is sponsoring an event to highlight funding opportunities for DPhil students, Postdocs and young Academics, which will take place at 4pm on Wednesday 26th February (Week 6 HT) in LR3, Mathematical Insitute, Woodstock Road (for a map, please click here).

The event is open to all, and will include the following talks:

  • 4pm - Introduction to Research Services
  • 4.15pm - Summary of Fellowships available
  • 4.35pm - EPSRC Application Seminar (Best practice for applications)
  • 5.20pm - Q&A Session followed by Drinks Reception

 

Registration for this event has now closed.

Second Oxford Brain Mechanics Workshop 13-14 January 2014

The 2014 Oxford Brain Mechanics Workshop focussed on various aspects of brain mechanics including pathology, injury and healing.

Speaker at this event included:

  • David Edwards, Kings College London
  • Anthony Bull, Imperial College London
  • Lee Goldstein, Boston University
  • Gerhard A. Holzapfel, Graz University of Technology
  • Fernando Maestu, Complutense University of Madrid
  • Riyi Shi, Purdue University
  • Nick Ward, University College London
  • Richard Stacey, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
  • Stephen Payne, University of Oxford
  • Jeremiah Murphy, Dublin City University
  • Nicholas de Pennington, Oxford University Hospital
  • Jay Jayamohan, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
  • Ellen Kuhl, Stanford University
  • Waney Squier, Oxford University Hospital
  • Ferarth Kherif, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois

 

Atomistic to Continuum Modelling Workshop, 29 November 2013

This workshop provided an introduction to some key concepts in Atomistic to Continuum limits, combining detailed discussions of the fundamental ideas underpinning the work with examples of recent results spanning various levels of simulation.

The event included the following talks:

  • Dick James - "A method for far-from-equilibrium simulations in molecular dynamics".
  • Andrea Braides - "Variational methods for lattice systems".
  • Adriana Garroni - "Multiscale analysis of variational models for dislocations".

 

Biomaterial Modelling Workshop, 1pm-6pm, Friday 22 November 2013

This workshop focussed on constitutive models of bones, tissues, organs and other biomaterials, and included the following talks:

  • Mario Di Paola (University of Palermo, Italy) "Fractional viscoelasticity of bones and mineralized tissues".
  • Anthony Bull (Imperial College) "Connective tissue structure- function relationships are strain rate dependent: lessons from Afghanistan".
  • Gerhard Holzapfel (Graz University of Technology) "Structural Modeling and Simulation of Fibrous Soft Biological Tissues with a Focus on the Microstructure".

 

Southern SIMULIA (Abaqus) Academic Forum, Wednesday 20 November 2013

A SIMULIA (Abaqus) Academic Forum was held on 20th November. This is an annual event giving Students and Researchers from universities in the south of the UK the chance to present their work in front of their peers and the chance to interact with other Abaqus users and SIMULIA staff.

The event included presentations by SIMULIA, and question and answer sessions on the ABAQUS software package, as well as the following research talks:

  • Rodolfo Fleury (Engineering, Oxford) "Investigation of fretting fatigue in turbine fir tree blade-to-disc joints at high temperature".
  • Jennifer Boyd (NDORMS, Oxford) "Creating increasingly physiological FE models of the knee".
  • Ariyan Ashkanfar (Engineering, Liverpool John Moores) "Finite element model for quantitative analysis of wear damage in metal-on-metal modular hip prosthesis".
  • Alexander Lunt (Engineering, Oxford) "Evaluation of single crystal elastic stiffness constants in tetragonal yttria partially stabilised zirconia (YPSZ) using Abaqus FEM matching of neutron diffraction data".
  • Yuepeng Dong (Engineering, Oxford) "Advanced finite element analysis of deep excavations and comparison with case history data".
  • Laith Tapper (Engineering, Oxford) "Undrained bearing capacity of square circular and ring footings on Tresca soil using adaptive FE analysis".

 

Young Researchers' Drinks Reception, 1 November 2013

A networking event was held to promote Oxford Solid Mechanics amongst DPhil students, Postdocs and Academics at the start of their careers as a way to make interdisciplinary connections.

Oxford Solid Mechanics Start-of-year Meeting, 25 October 2013

Several speakers provided an overview of the research in Solid Mechanics happening in their respective departments. Please find their slides (in PDF format) below.

ABAQUS Question and Answer Session, 2.30pm, 10 May 2013

A Q&A session with an engineer from SIMULIA, the company who make ABAQUS was held on 10 May 2013.

Fourth ABAQUS Workshop: Computational Modelling of Composite and Biocomposite Materials

A fourth workshop on the ABAQUS package was held on 7 March 2013, focussing on the modeling of composite materials. The workshop included the following talks:

  • Analysis models for polymer composite materials. Pedro Camahno (University of Porto).
  • Computational modelling of poroviscoelastic hydrogel composites. Michelle Oyen (University of Cambridge).
  • Development of finite element models for binary composites. Edmund Tarleton (University of Oxford).

 

Effective Properties of Materials: Perspectives from Mathematics and Engineering Science

A one day mini-course on the mathematical approach to effective properties of materials was held on 11 March 2013, focussing will be on the method and results rather than on proofs. Topics covered in the course included recent advances regarding effective properties of highly contrasted materials e.g. non-local effects, and the Hall effect. The final lecture will be devoted to computational challenges related to multi-scale materials.

Yves Capdeboscq (University of Oxford), Marc Briane (INSA Rennes) and Ludovic Noels (University of Liège) all spoke at the event.

Solid Mechanics and 4th Generation Light Sources

4th Generation Light Sources are at the leading edge of scientific innovation, being used to drive forward research in a number of diverse applications in materials engineering, energy, environmental sciences and bioscience. This seminar provided a brief introduction to the subject.

Ian Robinson (UCL) and Andrew Higginbotham (University of Oxford) spoke at the event; Ian Robinson's presentation can be found here.

Recent advances in Finite Element Method: future challenges and trends, 22 November 2012

A half-day workshop on the future of the Finite Element Method was held on 22 November 2012. The Finite Element Method is the most powerful computer method to have ever impacted design (from concept to production); it has many industrial applications and has inspired generations of scientists from all disciplines.

The workshop brought together researchers from different background interested in computational methods for solid mechanics. We discussed trends and challenges of the Finite Element Method, FEM with NURBS (the same technology as used in Computer Aided Design), coupling FEM with other discretization methods and automated FE code generation.

The following talks were given:

  • "Five Trends in the Mathematical Foundation of Computational PDEs", Carsten Carstensen (Humboldt University of Berlin).
  • "NURBS-Enhanced Finite Element Method (NEFEM)", Ruben Sevilla (Swansea).
  • "Expressive and high performance scientific computing: applications in solid mechanics", Garth Wells (Cambridge).
  • "Coupled Discrete Element Method - Finite Element Method", Nik Petrinic (Oxford).

 

Modelling Fracture and Failure with ABAQUS, 14 November 2012

A third ABAQUS workshop was held from on 14 November 2012 in the Engineering Department. This workshop focused specifically on XFEM, or the Extended Finite Element Method, which has recently been implemented in ABAQUS and is a highly useful tool for modelling fracture. The talks given were:

  • XFEM (Extended Finite Element Method) overview. Stephan Bordas, (Cardiff).
  • How to use XFEM in ABAQUS through simple fracture mechanics problems. Eric Wyart, (CENAERO).
  • "Massively parallel implementation of XFEM for fracture simulations". Antoine Jerusalem, (Engineering, Oxford).
  • "Modelling the Mechanics of Cam-type Femoroacetabular Impingement (FAI)". Annie Ng, (OOEC, Oxford).
  • "Practical tips on ABAQUS application in fracture mechanics". Dr. Mahmoud Mostafi, (Materials, Oxford).
  • "A new linear initially rigid cohesive element approach". Sasha Knell, (Engineering, Oxford).

Solid Mechanics of Flexible Frameworks, 18 October 2012

A half-day seminar was held on 18 October at the Inorganic Chemistry Lab, South Parks Road. Speakers included:

  • Russell Morris (St Andrews),
  • Stephen Wells (Warwick),
  • Arnaud Marmier (Exeter),
  • Jin-Chong Tan (Oxford),
  • Simon Guest (Cambridge) and
  • Gérard Férey (Versailles).

There was a poster session organised by the Junior Steering Committee after the talks.

 

9 May 2012: Second ABAQUS Workshop

After the great success of the first ABAQUS workshop, a second ABAQUS workshop was organised to deal with further technical issues.

 

Presentations

  • Fionn Dunne (Engineering Science), How To Write A UMAT.
  • Petros Siegkas (Engineering Science), How To Import Mesh Formats From XMT And Irregular Foam Geometries To ABAQUS Models At Low Cost.
  • Jennifer Boyd (Engineering Science), A (Not So Cheap) Method Of Creating FE Models From Medical Images.

 

2 February 2012: ABAQUS Workshop

This workshop was organised to share knowledge of ABAQUS and other finite element packages used across the departments involved in Oxford Solid Mechanics.

General Presentations

  • Jon Gregory (Engineering Science), IT ABAQUS Support.
  • Andrew Richards (OERC), Oxford Super Computing: An Overview.
  • Elise Pegg (Bioengineering), Use Of ABAQUS To Explore The Mechanics Of The Musculoskeletal System.
  • Peter Stewart (Maths), Growing elastic tissues.
  • Joe Gattas (Civil Engineering), Impact Simulation on Thin-Walled Structures.
  • Carolina Wessel (Robotics Group), Using ABAQUS To Model The Compressions Of The Breast During An X-Ray Scan.

Technical Presentations

  • Olga Barrera (Solid Mechanics Group): User Element Implementation.
  • Andreas Schiffer (Solid Mechanics Group): Fluid-Structure Interaction.
  • Robert Paynter (Solid Mechanics Group): Simulation of Partial Slip Contact.
  • Edmund Tarleton (Materials Science): Python Scripting.

23 November 2011: Oxford Solid Mechanics Junior Researchers' Reception

The Oxford Solid Mechanics Junior Steering Committee organised an evening reception for networking at the University Club.

The event included a brief introduction to Oxford Solid Mechanics, refreshments and a poster session.

 

26-28 September 2011: Pattern Formation and Multiscale Phenomena in Materials

 

This workshop both brought to a close the EPSRC-funded OxMOS programme and was the first to be held in the NSF PIRE programme Science at the Triple Point of Mathematics, Mechanics and Materials Science.

The programme for this event can be found here.

4-5 July 2011: Intellectual Challenges in Multiscale Modelling of Solids

Speakers and PDF copies of their presentations are listed below:

The programme for the event can be found here.

Wednesday 15th June 2011: Oxford Solid Mechanics Graduate Seminar

The second Oxford Solid Mechanics Graduate Seminar was given by David Al-Attar from the Department of Earth Sciences.

Title: Seismic studies of the Earth's deep interior

Abstract: Following an earthquake, seismic waves propagate through the Earth and are recorded by seismometers positioned around the globe.

These seismic observations provide information on both the earthquake process and on the Earth's internal structure. In this talk I will first discuss the geological background and motivation behind such studies of the Earth's interior. I will then describe some theoretical and computational problems associated with the determination of Earth structure from seismic observations. In particular, I will focus on the modelling of the Earth's free oscillations and on the calculation of so-called sensitivity kernels for seismic observations using adjoint methods.

Bio: Dr David Al-Attar obtained his DPhil from Oxford in Earth Sciences under the supervision of Prof John Woodhouse. He is also Junior Research Fellow in Geology at Merton College. He is a theoretical geophysicist interested in the application of continuum mechanics to processes occurring within the Earth, and in the use of inverse theory to learn about the Earth's internal structure. During his doctorate, he has worked on the theory of seismic wave propagation in linear viscoelastic materials, post-seismic deformation and post-glacial rebound.

 

Wednesday 1 June 2011: Oxford Solid Mechanics Graduate Seminar

 

The first of two Oxford Solid Mechanics Graduate Seminars was given by Derek Moulton from Alain Goriely's group in the Mathematical Institute.

Title: Surface growth: kinematics to mechanics (and lots of pretty seashells along the way)

Abstract: Growth, quite simply, is the process by which a material gains mass. This talk focuses on surface growth, or accretion, a particular form of growth in which mass is deposited on the surface of a body. An appealing example of surface growth is found in seashells. Seashells have intrigued scientists and mathematicians alike for centuries. While numerous mathematical descriptions of the shapes of seashells can be found, several aspects of how seashells grow are not understood. At the heart of the problem is the relationship between growth and mechanics. I first describe a framework for surface growth kinematics in terms of local growth velocities. I then demonstrate how mechanics can be incorporated within the model and provide a natural mechanism for seashell ornamentation.

Bio: Derek Moulton is a postdoctoral researcher in Oxford Centre for Collaborative Applied Mathematics (OCCAM). His research interests are in mathematical modelling of physical phenomena. He has previously worked with electrostatic interactions with minimal surfaces, sand ripple formation, and magnetic thin films. Currently, his work focuses on the mechanics of growth processes in biological systems.

You can see some pictures of this event here: 1 2 3 4 5

14 January 2011: Oxford Solid Mechanics Graduate Conference

Presentations

  • Clare Dancer, Andy Higginbotham, Christoph Ortner, Introductory talks on Materials, Physics, and Mathematics.
  • Ben Britton (Materials), Strain mapping with electron backscatter diffraction in the scanning electron microscope: a tool for observing and understanding micro-mechanical behavior.
  • Bernhard Langwallner (Maths), The Quasicontinuum Method - Overview and a Mathematical Perspective.

Posters

  • Andrew Norton, Richard Norton, Mithila Achintha

28 September 2010: "Experiments in Solid Mechanics" Workshop

Presentations

29 September 2010: OxMOS Final Year Students - Research Updates

Presentations

12 May 2010: Oxford Solid Mechanics Launch Meeting

Presentations