Cutting science in biology and engineering

What is it about?

Cutting is an important process in both Engineering and biology. In Engineering, it is an important industrial process and it is often related to the fracture toughness of a material, i.e. how much energy is needed to produce a new unit of surface area. In Biology cutting is a very important process during feeding of animals. This meeting was put forward in order to bring these two groups of researchers together so that they can help each other in meeting the same aim which is to understand the cutting process.

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Why is it important?

Understanding cutting is very important for many reasons. Firstly cutting is an important industrial process (of metals, foods etc) so being bale to model such processes correctly can lead to optimisation and associated reduction in efficiency and product quality. Often, cutting is also used as a Fracture Mechanics experiment to determine the toughness of soft materials. This is a true material property, very much like Modulus is. Therefore knowing what the fracture toughness is can help in comparing products as well as making sure they are fit for purpose. Last but not least, in Biology, cutting is a crucial process, linked to feeding and species evolution, both in animals and plants.

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