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.
A new study from an interdisciplinary German research collaboration, led by the Haptic Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS), reveals the secret to the gentle dexterity of the ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 12, 2026
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Modern armor systems do not do a good enough job of protecting humans from blast-induced neurotrauma (brain and eye damage). To improve them, we may have to look to nature. In particular, a tiny shrimp that is able to protect ...
Researchers in China have isolated the effects of electronic friction, showing for the first time how the subtle drag force it imparts at sliding interfaces can be controlled. They demonstrate that it can be tuned by applying ...
If you've ever watched a glass blower at work, you've seen a material behaving in a very special way. As it cools, the viscosity of molten glass increases steadily but gradually, allowing it to be shaped without a mold. Physicists ...
When pistachio hulls split before the nuts are harvested, insects and fungi can get inside, damaging the nut, costing farmers money and contaminating the nuts. About 4% of the overall crop experiences hull split, but some ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jan 23, 2026
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126
Phonons are sound particles or quantized vibrations of atoms in solid materials. The Debye model, a theory introduced by physicist Peter Debye in 1912, describes the contribution of phonons to the specific heat of materials ...
Researchers at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, have used three-dimensional atomic force microscopy (AFM) and molecular dynamics simulations to determine the structure of water in the hydration ...
Nanomaterials
Nov 6, 2025
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In science and engineering, it's unusual for innovation to come in one fell swoop. It's more often a painstaking plod through which the extraordinary gradually becomes ordinary.
General Physics
Oct 14, 2025
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205
How does skin hold you in? How do heart cells beat together? Researchers at the University of California, Davis, Department of Biomedical Engineering, are exploring how structures called desmosomes, which stick cells together, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 14, 2025
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61
Scientists at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) have discovered a way to control sound and vibrations using a concept inspired by "twistronics," a phenomenon originally developed ...
Condensed Matter
Oct 13, 2025
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