Composites, Meta and Nano Materials Modelling and Structural Application

Dear Colleagues,

Engineered materials and their applications have defined the modern frontier of structural engineering. The design and evaluation of constitutive laws, starting from the constituent structure at the element scale, is a crucial aspect that structural engineers must consider and incorporate into their designs. The internal constituent aggregate defines the element scale, varying from the nanoscale of nanomaterials and nanofluids, which are composed of atomic aggregates such as graphene and similar nanostructured elements, to masonry, fractured rocks, and similar materials, where the element scale has dimensions ranging from decimeters to meters.

The challenge in modeling the structural behavior of such materials is to capture the essential behavior without losing specific aspects, such as non-linearities, from both geometric and constitutive standpoints, while also obtaining a simple model that can be studied using established methods of structural mechanics. One of the most important aspects of defining a robust strategy for describing the behavior of metamaterials is the possibility of designing the element aggregate at the material scale to achieve the desired behavior at the structural scale in terms of stiffness, strength, and, in a general sense, any physical property.

The proposal for the Special Issue we are editing aims to bring together scientists and engineers to summarize the description, modeling, constitutive laws, proposal, validation, and homogenization and optimization techniques, facilitating the description and design of nano meta and composite materials and structures.

Dr. Vincenzo Minutolo
Dr. Renato Zona
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.