Huiming Yin, Columbia University

Tungyang Chen, National Cheng Kung University

Yang Gao, China Agricultural University

Anthony Rosato, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Sixty to eighty percent of manufactured products are manufactured via particulate based processes, which has exceeded a combined market value of one trillion dollars per year in the U.S. alone. The annual cost of inefficient industrial mixing in the US has been estimated to be as high as $10 billion with roughly 60 % of blended products typically being powder or granular materials. Driven by the broad industrial applications including energy, infrastructure, defense, and composite materials engineering, the mixing of powders and granular materials and evaluation of the effective properties have been a very demanding research area. In those applications, it is generally required that the ingredients be mixed uniformly maintaining a certain concentration to meet quality and performance goals. While considerable progress in understanding the dynamics of dry granular materials has been made recent years, the physical mechanisms underlying the properties of wet systems or in viscous fluids remain largely obscure. In addition, during the manufacturing phase and service life of the material systems, particle’s motion and interaction may significantly depend on the environmental factors, including magnetic, electric, and mechanical excitements. Therefore, the evolution of particle distribution and their effective material behavior are always crucial to the design and performance of those materials. This minisymposium will provide a platform to exchange the fundamental understanding of the mechanics of many particle systems under multiphysical and mechanical excitation and to share emerging applications of those materials.

Keywords: material systems, solids and structure