Monday, May 22

MS7
Macroscopic Properties of Heterogeneous Material Systems

10:00 AM-12:00 PM
Room: Independence B

The prediction of the macroscopic response of material systems that are heterogeneous at a sufficiently small length scale defines a challenging class of mathematical problems that are of central technological importance in materials science. There are numerous applications to man-made materials, such as smart structures and metal-matrix composites, and to naturally appearing ones, such as rocks, metals and biological tissues. While much is now known, particularly when the properties of the constituents are linear, much remains to be discovered, especially in the nonlinear range. In this minisymposium, several recent developments will be presented. These include novel theoretical constructions (partial differential microstructures) and methodology (path integral methods), as well as applications to material systems with complex microstructures (ferroelectric ceramics) and strongly nonlinear behavior (reinforced elastomers).

10:00-10:25 Partial Differential Microstructures

Graeme W. Milton, University of Utah, USA

10:30-10:55 Effective-Medium Theories and Path Integrals

Marc Barthelemy and Yves-Patrick Pellegrini, Commissariat á l'Energie Atomique, France

11:00-11:25 Ferroelectric Ceramics

Kaushik Bhattacharya and Jiangyu Li, California Institute of Technology, USA

11:30-11:55 Macroscopic Properties of Elastomeric Composites and Applications

Pedro Ponte Castaneda, Organizer; and Emilio Tiberio, University of Pennsylvania, USA