About

• The symposium explores new horizons in solid mechanics, highlighting recent theoretical, computational and experimental advances in multiscale modelling, fracture, full-field measurements and data-driven methods for emerging materials and structures under multiphysics or mechanical environments. It brings together distinguished researchers from around the world, representing diverse stages of their academic and professional careers. Through talks and discussions, the symposium aims to advance the fundamental understanding of solid mechanics while exploring its potential to address critical societal challenges of national and global significance.
• Multiscale modeling has been a long standing effort to bridge microscale mechanisms and macroscopic material response using coarse-graining techniques such as theoretical and computational homogenization methods. A major challenge is incorporating microstructural evolution under complex mechanical and multiphysics environments where coupled processes such as phase transformation, plasticity, and fracture interact across multiple scales. Another important direction involves the inverse design of material microstructures and architectures to achieve unprecedented effective properties and functionalities, enabling the development of metamaterials and architected systems with tailored mechanical responses.
• Material and structural response under multiphysics environments has gained significant attention, particularly due to its importance in batteries and functional materials and structures. For example, structural batteries are emerging as next-generation multifunctional materials and structures capable of simultaneously carrying mechanical loads and storing electrochemical energy. Functionality in materials can also be achieved through polymers and soft materials actuated by magnetic or electric fields, enabling large and reversible deformations. Moreover, programmable mechanical behavior can be realized through field-induced multistability, where magnetic and electrical stimuli trigger controlled transitions between stable configurations.
• Fracture and fatigue of materials and structures have long remained central topics in solid mechanics due to their complexity and critical importance in engineering applications. Recently, new directions have emerged through phase-field approaches, which provide a variationally consistent framework for modelling crack initiation, propagation, branching, and coalescence in heterogeneous and multiphysics materials and structures. Current research spans brittle, ductile, dynamic, and fatigue fracture, as well as coupled fracture phenomena involving hydrogen transport and plasticity.
• Experimental mechanics is undergoing a major transformation driven by advanced full-field measurement techniques capable of resolving deformation, strain localization, and damage evolution across multiple length and time scales. Key topics include digital image and volume correlation, as well as in situ and operando characterization under extreme thermomechanical environments. These experimental approaches generate high-fidelity quantitative datasets for constitutive model identification and direct observation of complex failure mechanisms in heterogeneous materials and structures.
• The large volume of data generated by modern experimental methods positions the field ideally for data-driven approaches to inverse analysis and predictive simulation through the integration of machine learning and scientific computing. Current research focuses on physics-informed neural networks, operator-learning frameworks, and sparse system identification for nonlinear and history-dependent material behavior. A central challenge is ensuring mathematical rigor and thermodynamic consistency while developing robust, generalizable models for heterogeneous materials and structures.