This is a past event.

MAE Graduate Seminar Speaker Series

proudly presents

Shelby Hutchens, PhD

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Abstract

We are comprised of and interact with highly deformable “materials” on a daily basis, yet we still lack robust failure criteria for this class materials. In other words, a failure energy that predicts new surface formation in one geometry, doesn’t apply to all loading conditions for this same material-even under quasi-static conditions! This is in part because soft, elastomeric solids combine large, nonlinear material responses with loading geometry-dependent dissipation and damage in the region near the crack surface. As a result, even commonly encountered failure geometries such as cutting (driven by blade insertion), needle insertion, and tearing (initiated by force far from the crack tip) are not quantitatively related to one another. In this talk I will present the progress we have made thus far in understanding and linking these three loading geometries and some of the experimental challenges we have overcome during this journey.

Bio

Shelby Hutchens, an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is passionate about uncovering the fundamental physics underlying the mechanical performance of soft and bio-inspired materials. Her research aims to lay the foundation for the next generation of bio-inspired soft materials and contribute to the development of universal fracture criteria in soft solids. Shelby's path started in Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State (B.S.) and Caltech (M.S. and Ph.D.) before evolving toward its current focus on mechanics of materials. She was awarded an NSF CAREER award in 2017 and identified as an Emerging Investigator by Soft Matter in 2021.

Invited by: Trisha Sain