MEMS for in situ mechanical characterization
Okay, so have you ever seen a tiny robot or gadget that moves and does things on its own? That's kind of what a MEMS is! MEMS stands for Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. It's a super small device, made up of really tiny parts and pieces. These little devices can do all sorts of things, like measure things or move around.
Now, when we talk about "in situ mechanical characterization," we mean testing how strong or tough something is while it's still in the place where it's supposed to be. For example, imagine you have a toy car with really big wheels. If you wanted to test how strong the wheels are, you wouldn't want to take them off and test them separately. You'd want to test them while they're on the car, because that's where they need to be strong!
So, we can use MEMS to test how strong or tough something is while it's still in its normal place. We attach the MEMS to the thing we want to test, and it measures how the thing is moving or shaking. Then we can use that information to figure out how strong or tough the thing is.
This is super useful if we're trying to build something new or make something stronger. We can test it while it's still in place, and if we find out that it's not strong enough, we can make changes to make it stronger. And all of this is done using super small and efficient MEMS devices!
Now, when we talk about "in situ mechanical characterization," we mean testing how strong or tough something is while it's still in the place where it's supposed to be. For example, imagine you have a toy car with really big wheels. If you wanted to test how strong the wheels are, you wouldn't want to take them off and test them separately. You'd want to test them while they're on the car, because that's where they need to be strong!
So, we can use MEMS to test how strong or tough something is while it's still in its normal place. We attach the MEMS to the thing we want to test, and it measures how the thing is moving or shaking. Then we can use that information to figure out how strong or tough the thing is.
This is super useful if we're trying to build something new or make something stronger. We can test it while it's still in place, and if we find out that it's not strong enough, we can make changes to make it stronger. And all of this is done using super small and efficient MEMS devices!