Mechanical and acoustical properties as a research area focuses on characterizing and modeling how materials and structures respond to mechanical loads and acoustic waves, including stress–strain behavior, elasticity, viscoelasticity, damping, wave propagation, impedance, and sound absorption or transmission. It integrates solid mechanics, continuum mechanics, and acoustics to understand couplings between structural dynamics and sound fields, often using experimental techniques such as dynamic mechanical analysis, ultrasonic testing, and impedance tube measurements, alongside analytical and numerical methods (e.g., finite element and boundary element modeling). This research underpins the design and optimization of materials and systems for vibration control, noise reduction, ultrasonic devices, and acoustic metamaterials.
Many materials, both living and engineered, are powered from within. Scientists have thoroughly investigated how such 'active' materials operate, but so far, mostly in circumstances where the curvature of the environment ...
Soft Matter
16 hours ago
0
5
Anyone who has had to share a room—or worse, a bed—with a loud snorer knows the effect unchecked snoring can have on sleep, sanity and emotional stability. An entire industry of products, technologies and treatments claims ...
General Physics
23 hours ago
0
13
Scientists have long believed that tissue-resident memory T cells—which remain in tissues after an infection has cleared and respond rapidly if the threat returns—are shaped primarily by biochemical signals. A McGill University–led ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 17, 2026
0
124
Snails are particularly active after a rain shower. Even on the Max Planck Campus in Potsdam-Golm, common brown-lipped snails (Cepaea nemoralis) leave behind shiny trails of mucus. Researchers from the "Biomaterials" department ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 7, 2026
0
15
Can a crack be supersonic? Can the fracture that triggers an avalanche propagate faster than the limiting velocity predicted by classical fracture mechanics? The question remains the subject of debate within the scientific ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 5, 2026
0
11
Mechanical strain is one of the most common tools used to tailor the properties of materials. In piezoelectric materials, stretching or compressing a crystal generates an electrical polarization. In piezomagnetic materials, ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 29, 2026
0
22
How do tissues cope with being stretched for hours or even days? A study led by researchers at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) has uncovered an unexpected answer: Cells radically reorganize their internal ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 27, 2026
0
845
Fabrics are made by repeatedly intertwining yarns into characteristic patterns. Many of their properties, such as stretchiness, arise not only from the material itself but also from how the yarns are arranged and entangled. ...
General Physics
Jul 15, 2026
0
117
If a liquid is cooled slowly to its freezing point, it becomes a crystal in which the constituent particles are arranged in an ordered pattern. In contrast, when the liquid is cooled very quickly, the particles are unable ...
General Physics
Jul 8, 2026
1
27
It was a journey to the center of the Earth, if only for the briefest of moments. But rather than tunneling thousands of miles from Earth's surface, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and several ...
Condensed Matter
Jul 7, 2026
0
13
