Mini-symposium title 

6-3 – Dynamic Phenomena and Transition Processes in Structured Media         

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Organisers 

Michael Nieves (Keele University), Andrea Piccolroaz (University of Trento), Anastasia Kisil (University of Manchester), Gennady Mishuris (Aberystwyth University)  

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Mini-symposium description 

Lattice and other discrete models have always been extremely popular tools in understanding molecular models in physics, chemistry and biology. These models provide deeper insight into the influence of microstructure on dynamic processes in solids and can be easily tailored for a variety of design purposes.

  

Recently, discrete models have played a prominent role in the development of next-generation materials or metamaterials, leading to media capable of counter-intuitive dynamic effects such as focusing, negative refraction and cloaking, to name only a few. Other models of structured media, having innovative applications in a variety of industries, include those of rationally combined continuous materials and those with predefined or random microstructures.

 

Wave propagation in structured media can lead, however, to unfeasible deformations, producing the initiation and propagation of failure. The latter, coupled with dynamic phenomena, presents an important and challenging problem. The subsequent study can reveal fundamental information about the structure’s influence on failure and phase transition processes, which includes associated propagation regimes. 

 

Further, continuous and discrete material models are interconnected in the framework of numerical modelling. Continuous models in, say, acoustics or elasticity are frequently solved via space discretisation leading to discrete problems. This means that some “lattice effects” are picked up in the solution which never appear in the corresponding continuous models. Understanding the role of discrete models in dealing with complicated singularities of domains and the boundary conditions posed presents significant challenges in creating robust and accurate numerical models of continuous processes.  

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The applicability of continuous and discrete models of structured materials continues to widen, with more recent applications appearing in civil engineering, manufacturing, the nuclear and electrical industries, and healthcare.  

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The mini-symposium intends to bring together established world-class experts with a newer generation of researchers working on understanding dynamic phenomena and transition processes in structured materials and establishing techniques to control associated phenomena. Some topics in this mini-symposium, which will stimulate professional discussions and potential future collaborations, include:

 

• General dynamic effects in structured materials, 

• Various lattices with defects, 

• Wave transmission and localization, 

• Dynamic phase transition and non-equilibrium materials, 

• Ordered regimes of dynamic lattice transformation, 

• Accurate discrete models for continuous processes, 

• Catastrophic failure and fracture propagation, 

• Slow dynamic processes, fatigue,  

• Macrolevel models for lattice materials, 

• Rational design of continuous or discrete structured media with innovative responses.

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