Thinking Solid Mechanics

The Solid Mechanics and Design group at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur consists of a focused and motivated team of people engaged in teaching and research in almost all contemporary areas of Solid Mechanics.

Artwork courtesy: Riju Chatterjee

State of the Art

How do we make the cutting edge sharper?

State of the Art of Research in Vibrations

Profs C S Manohar from IISc Bangalore, Anindya Chatterjee and Pankaj Wahi from IITK and Salil Kulkarni from IITB discuss the challenges in vibrations research today. Nonlinearities, uncertainties and reduced order modelling emerge as areas where the focus of further research needs to be. The luxury of linearity Many undergraduate engineering courses include a major course on vibrations. Typically, we learn about mathematical techniques for handling single degree of freedom sy

Sep 1510 min read

Topology Optimisation

Traditional heuristic design methodologies can be augmented by computational tools that can decide how material must be distributed over a domain in space so that a well-formulated and mathematically well-posed design goal can be met. But conjuring up a workable design demands robust software tools and computational power. In a discussion moderated by Prof Anupam Saxena (IIT Kanpur), Profs G. K. Ananthasuresh and C.S Jog (IISc, Bangalore), V. S. Nagendra Reddy B (NIT Kurusksh

May 129 min read

Mechanics of batteries

The workings of a rechargable batttery --- the lifeline of portable, wireless and sustainable electronics --- depends as much on electro-chemistry as it does on mechanics. The science of lithiation and delithiation makes a durable energy storage device possible but extending its cycle-life requires an understanding of the mechanical connotations of this science. We got five experts, Profs Jeevanjyoti Chakraborty (IIT Kharagpur), Dipayan Mukherjee (IIT Kanpur), Shrinidhi S Pan

Mar 910 min read

Experimental Techniques in Solid Mechanics

We gathered five leading experts to discuss the challenges faced by experimental Solid Mechanics and brainstorm ideas to overcome them. Profs Nagamani Jaya Balila from Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, IITB, Nilesh Gurao from Materials Science and Engineering IITK, Ratna Kumar Annabattula from Mechanical Engineering IITM, P Venkitanarayanan from Mechanical Engineering IITK and Sankara Subramanian from IndicVision joined the discussion which was moderated by

Jan 39 min read

Blackboard

Short lectures explaining pain points in Solid Mechanics, by those who understand them.

Dealing with stress

If the Cauchy stress principle and the mystery of the traction vector confounds you, here is a 20 min video by Prof Anurag Gupta that explains the connection. More available at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpGHlNk4vzY

Explaining resonance

Prof Pankaj Wahi explains the phenomenon of resonance in simple spring mass systems. It is more subtle than you thought!

Views

On emerging areas of Solid Mechanics, from our archives

Flexoelectricity and Electrets

Flexoelectric materials are dielectrics that behave like piezoelectrics under non uniform strains like in bending. Unlike piezoelectric materials which need to possess special crystal structures, flexoelectricity is universal --- all dielectrics can potentially be flexoelectric. Unfortunately, flexoelectricity manifests at very small length scales. On the other hand, electrets are dielectrics with permanent electric charges embedded in them either naturally or during fabrication. In this webinar, Prof Pradeep Sharma from the University of Houston discusses the exciting idea of creating soft flexoelectrics using specially designed electrets.

Multiscale modelling of failure in composite materials

Composites are one of the most commonly used engineered materials today. They are made up of two or more constituent materials, carefully combined to produce targeted and often conflicting properties in a manner that natural materials find hard to match. Though the effective property of a composite can be closely predicted if we know the constituents and their distribution, failure in these materials are difficult to model. Prof Sergio Turteltaub from TUDelft speaks about his research on how microscopic events conspire to produce macroscopic failure in composites.

Features

Reports on ongoing research at SMD@iitkanpur

Mechanics of Defects in Plates and Shells

Saptarshi Paul is a PhD student at IIT Kanpur who worries about dislocations and disclinations on curved surfaces. These are defects that arise because of mismatches in rotation and translation. On curved surfaces, curvature interacts with the defects. And this has deeper technological implications. Inspiration: Defect-mediated Growth of Cell Wall in Bacteria All living things grow. A bud on a plant can grow into a flower, leaf, or shoot. An embryo in a mother’s womb grows in

May 187 min read

Polymers, entanglements and cross-links

Computer simulations detailing polymers at the level of atoms are shedding light on how these synthetic materials deform and bear loads. They are even providing clues to how bespoke polymers with surface and bulk properties targeted for specific applications can be designed from bottom-up. T he white, flimsy glass in which you were served the dark, flat cola at the last party you attended was made of a material called polystyrene foam, though, understandably, you could not ca

Mar 89 min read

Crawling through pipes

Millions of kilometres of pipelines carrying oil, gas and water criss-cross the face of the earth. Making sure that they are in good health requires robots that can crawl through their insides and check if the inner walls have defects. Prof. Bishakh Bhattacharya and his team have a low-cost solution. Its a PIG.

Jan 46 min read

Secrets of dirty ice

Shruthi Pandey, P Venkitanarayanan and Ishan Sharma are trying to understand the failure mechanism of ice laden with dirt when subjected to sudden, rapid and very large loads. Dirty ice is often the cement binding boulders that make up glacial dams holding huge volumes of water. Understanding how they fail is crucial to modelling ice dam bursts that are known to cause devastation in the high mountains.

Oct 22, 20256 min read

Challenges

Gauntlets thrown by Prof Anindya Chatterjee

Challenge date 09-03-2026

Mar 91 min read

Challenge date 06-01-2026

Oct 22, 20251 min read