This Chapter describes the concurrent coupling of atomistic methods with continuum mechanics. Such models are useful in the study of phenomena such as fracture and dislocation dynamics, where molecular mechanics and/or quantum mechanics models are required for phenomena such as bond breaking, but the relevant configuration is far too large to permit a completely atomic description. To make such...

the presence of van der waals (vdw) force can lead to mechanical instability in freestanding nano-scale actuators. most of the previous researches in this area have exclusively focused on modeling the instability in actuators with one actuating components. while, less attention has been paid to actuators consist of two actuating components. herein, the effect of the vdw force on the instability...

This paper presents the thermal vibration analysis of double-layer graphene sheet embedded in polymer elastic medium, using the plate theory and nonlocal continuum mechanics for small scale effects. The graphene is modeled based on continuum plate theory and the axial stress caused by the thermal effects is also considered. Nonlocal governing equations of motion for this double-layer graphene s...

The main objective of this paper is to develop a multiscale method for the static analysis of a nano-system, based on a combination of molecular mechanics and MLPG methods. The tangent-stiffness formulations are given for this multiscale method, as well as a pure molecular mechanics method. This method is also shown to naturally link the continuum local balance equation with molecular mechanics...

The main object of this thesis is the rigorous derivation of continuum models in mechanobiology via multiscale analysis. On the microscopic level, models in terms of energy functionals defined on networks / lattices are considered. Using concepts of Γ-convergence rigorous convergence results as well as explicit homogenisation formulae can be derived. Based on a characterisation via energy funct...

Tumor invasion and metastasis are strongly regulated by biophysical interactions between tumor cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM). While the influence of ECM stiffness on cell migration, adhesion, and contractility has been extensively studied in 2D culture, extension of this concept to 3D cultures that more closely resemble tissue has proven challenging, because perturbations that change...

The biomechanical properties of the extracellular matrix (ECM) play an important role in cell migration, gene expression, and differentiation. Biomechanics measurements of ECM are usually performed on cryotomed tissue sections. However, studies on cell/matrix interplay are impossible to perform due to disruptions in cell viability and tissue architecture from freeze-thaw cycling. We developed a...

It is advantageous to use biomaterials in tissue engineering that stimulate extracellular matrix (ECM) production by the cellular component. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) stimulates type I collagen (COL1A1) transcription, but is functionally limited as a free molecule. Using a matrix-binding domain (MBD) from microfibril-associated glycoprotein-1, the fusion protein MBD-CTGF was target...

This is the third in a series of four papers examining the link between the energetics and mechanics of terrestrial locomotion. It reports measurements of the mechanical work required (ECM, tot) to lift and reaccelerate an animal's centre of mass within each step as a function of speed and body size during level, constant average speed locomotion. A force platform was used in this study to meas...

Piezoelectric nanomaterials (PNs) are attractive for applications including sensing, actuating, energy harvesting, among others in nano-electro-mechanical-systems (NEMS) because of their excellent electromechanical coupling, mechanical and physical properties. However, the properties of PNs do not coincide with their bulk counterparts and depend on the particular size. A large amount of efforts...