With a loose reference to problems of penetration in biomechanics (for instance, a nanoparticle penetrating through a cell's membrane or a cell sucked with a pipette), the role of configurational forces is investigated during the process in which a compliant intruder is inserted into an elastic structure. For insertion into a rigid constraint, a configurational force proportional to the square of the strain needed to deform the body, which is penetrating, is found. This force has a more complex structure when the compliance of the constraint is kept into account, but in all cases, it tends to expel the penetrating body.
@article{arxiv.2212.00010,
title = {Configurational Forces in Penetration Processes},
author = {Davide Bigoni and Marco Amato and Francesco Dal Corso},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2212.00010},
year = {2022}
}