A survey of the scientific literature on mechanics of materials reveals significant research efforts carried out in the past decade or so on mechanical properties of nanoscale materials. In this context, nanoscale refers to materials with at least one length scale less than ~500 nm, such as metallic nanowires and carbon nanotubes. These studies generally point to significant size-effects in mechanical properties, such as the enhancement of strength of nanowires with a reduction in diameter. These trends are generally explained in terms of classical size-effects, which could be simply put as “less material will have less critical defects”, or surface effects, such as the effect of surface tension on mechanical properties in nanoscale or the effect of surface tension on reorganizing atoms towards an energetically more favorably configuration. This symposium is interested in the development of deeper insight into mechanical size-effects in nanoscale materials, computational work on mechanical size-effect, and the identification of relationships between size-effect in mechanical properties of materials and the microstructure of the material. In this context, mechanical properties will entail not only properties of structural materials, such as strength and toughness, but also mechanics of active materials, such as the recovery stress of actuators. The materials of interest include, but are not limited to, carbon-based nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes and nanofibers, metallic nanowires and thin film actuators, and polymeric nanofibers. This symposium will emphasize sharing new understandings on the lessons that can be learned from nanoscale materials to make mechanically superior materials and actuators.

Schedule

2D carbon allotropes under confinement

Matthew Becton, University of Georgia, United States
Xianqiao Wang, University of Georgia, United States

Assessing MWCNT-graphene surface energy through in situ SEM peeling

Michael R. Roenbeck, Northwestern University, United States
Xiaoding Wei, Northwestern University, United States
Allison M. Beese, Northwestern University, United States
Mohammad Naraghi, Northwestern University, United States
Al’ona Furmanchuk, Northwestern University, United States
Jeffrey T. Paci, Northwestern University, United States
George C. Schatz, Northwestern University, United States
Horacio D. Espinosa, Northwestern University, United States

Deformation mechanisms in bulk nanostructured metals and strategies to improve their ductility

Enrique Lavernia, University of California, Davis, United States
Haiming Wen, University of California, Davis, United States

Effects of solutes on migration of incoherent twin boundary in FCC metals

Mikhail Mendelev, Ames Laboratory US DOE, United States
Valery Borovikov, Ames Laboratory US DOE, United States

Fracture of 2D crystalline nanomaterials: effect of hydrogen functionalization and complex loading

Dibakar Datta, Brown University
Yinfeng Li, Shanghai Jioa Tong University, United States
Shiva Nadimpalli, NJIT, United States
Vivek Shenoy, The University of Pennsylvania, United States

Friction between bilayer of 2D crystalline nanomaterials: graphene–graphene, graphene–boron nitride, and boron nitride–boron nitride.

Dibakar Datta, Brown University, United States
Hemant Kumar, The University of Pennsylvania, United States
Vivek Shenoy, The University of Pennsylvania, United States
Shiva Nadimpalli, NJIT, United States
Yinfeng Li, Shanghai Jioa Tong University, China

Gradient-based constitutive model to predict size effect in the response of SMA thin films

James Boyd, Texas A&M University, United States
Majid Tabesh, Texas A&M University, United States
Dimitris Lagoudas, Texas A&M University, United States

Investigation of extended stacking fault emission from grain boundaries using a density functional theory -informed 3D phase field dislocation dynamics model

Abigail Hunter, Los Alamos National Laboratory, United States
Irene Beyerlein, Los Alamos National Laboratory, United States

Investigation of indentation size effects in elastomers

Gurudutt Chandrashekar, University of Wyoming, United States
Farid Alisafaei, University of Wyoming, United States
Chung-Souk Han, University of Wyoming, United States

Molecular dynamics simulation of multiphysics

Jiaoyan Li, The George Washington University, United States
James Lee, The George Washington University, United States

Nanomechanical characterization of carbon nanotube-polymer interfacial strength

Xiaoming Chen, State University of New York at Binghamton, United States
Changhong Ke, State University of New York at Binghamton, United States

Nanoscale mechanics of focused ion beam processing

Kallol Das, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
Jonathan Freund, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
Harley Johnson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States

Objectivity in molecular dynamics

Zidong Yang, The George Washington University, United States
James Lee, The George Washington University, United States
Azim Eskandarian, The George Washington University, United States

Strain mediated nanoscale transport in nanostructured carbon materials

Md Hossain, California Institute of Technology

The size and rate dependence of the large deformation response of polystyrene nanofibers

Pavan Kolluru, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, United States
Ioannis Chasiotis, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, United States