In My Time With B-SMaRT

In the weeks since I started the B-SMaRT REU I’ve learned more than I ever thought I would, so I figured I’d give a quick overview of my experience here. I’ll start with two things I wish I’d known before I started and then I’ll get into the good stuff. The first thing is that there is more than one way to contribute to the progress of a project, just because you don’t know how to do something doesn’t mean you can’t help. The second is don’t assume that your assumptions are correct, sometimes the right answer isn’t what you’d expect it to be.

I’ve learned a lot about doing research in the past weeks, but that’s not the interesting part, the most interesting part is the research itself. I’m working in the Santangelo group, with most of my help coming from my post doc, Art. I’m researching the mechanics of elastic shells under indentation; simply put I want to know why a hemispherical rubber shell does what it does when I poke the top of it. I run simulations using a finite element analysis software called Abaqus to simulate indentation depending on a set of varying parameters. The picture to the left illustrates what happens when you poke an elastic hemisphere. The three red “peaks” are structures called s-cones, and my project deals with understanding how they form and why other things happen when a shell is indented. I’ve retrieved data for shells of varying thickness and material, and have compared mesh sizes to ensure that my results weren’t mesh dependent. After resolving some issues I was having with my model I was able to determine that what we initially thought was noise were actually vibrations. Since then I’ve introduced folds to the shell at varying heights, and thicknesses. While doing this I observed some interesting behaviors that I hadn’t expected, which led me to collect data about the fold and the surrounding area that I wouldn’t have thought to get before.

If it’s the environment you’re curious about, then I’ve also made great friends here and had an overall amazing experience. In addition to the program directors, the Santangelo group has been extremely welcoming and helpful during my time here, and without their guidance I never would have accomplished what I have.