Advances in Thin Structures and Materials Modelling

Dear Colleagues,

Thin structures widely used in electro-mechanical devices and structural components have been experimentally observed to exhibit size effects at the micron and nanometer scales, which cannot be interpreted using classical theories. Hence, higher-order (non-classical) theories need to be applied to develop new size-dependent models for thin elastic/dielectric/piezoelectric/piezomagnetic/magnetoelectric structures. The relevant variational formulations, numerical approaches and applications have attracted many researchers. The aim of this Special Issue is to cover the recent theoretical and numerical studies in novel size-dependent thin structure models, ranging from isotropic elastic materials to all types of crystalline solids. Applications to corresponding bending, buckling, vibration, elastic wave propagation and other engineering problems are also included in this Special Issue.

Potential topics welcome in this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

• Microstructure-dependent thin structures;
• Surface energy-dependent thin structures;
• Flexoelectric thin structures;
• Piezoelectric/piezomagnetic/magnetoelectric thin structures;
• Size-dependent functionally graded  thin structures;
• Isogeometric analysis of size-dependent thin structures;
• Elastic wave propagation in thin structures;
• Tunable bandgaps in phononic crystal thin structures;
• Microstructure/microtexture friction/contact;
• Magnetofluid modelling and applications;
• Rock-like materials modelling and simulations.

Dr. Gongye Zhang
Prof. Dr. Shuitao Gu
Dr. Shuohui Yin
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. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2100 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.