Related papers: Drag forces on inclusions in classical fields with…

We present a systematic investigation of the distribution of normal forces at the boundaries of static packings of spheres. A new method for the efficient construction of large hexagonal-close-packed crystals is introduced and used to study…

The cytoskeleton is an important subsystem of cells that is involved for example in cell division and locomotion. It consists of filaments that are cross-linked by molecular motors that can induce relative sliding between filaments and…

Dislocations are topological defects known to be crucial in the onset of plasticity and in many properties of crystals. Classical Elasticity still fails to fully explain their dynamics under extreme conditions of high strain gradients and…

We investigate the dynamics of an intruder pulled by a constant force in a dense two-dimensional granular fluid by means of event-driven molecular dynamics simulations. In a first step, we show how a propagating momentum front develops and…

The dynamics of a "peeling front" or an elastic line is studied under creep (constant load) conditions. Our experiments show an exponential dependence of the creep velocity on the inverse force (mass) applied. In particular, the dynamical…

In the dilute limit Eshelby's inclusion theory captures the behavior of a wide range of systems and properties. However, because Eshelby's approach neglects interfacial stress, it breaks down in soft materials as the inclusion size…

The mechanics and statistical mechanics of a suspension of active particles are determined by the traction (force per unit area) on their surfaces. Here we present an exact solution of the direct boundary integral equation for the traction…

We study the friction between a flat solid surface where polymer chains have been end-grafted and a cross-linked elastomer at low sliding velocity. The contribution of isolated grafted chains' penetration in the sliding elastomer has been…

Soft materials are ubiquitous in technological applications that require deformability, for instance, in flexible, water-repellent coatings. However, the wetting properties of pre-strained soft materials are only beginning to be explored.…

Cells exert traction forces on compliant substrates and can induce surface instabilities that appear as characteristic wrinkling patterns. Here, we develop a mechanical description of cell-induced wrinkling on soft substrates using a thin…

We address the velocity fluctuations of fastly moving cracks in stressed materials. One possible mechanism for such fluctuations is the interaction of the main crack with micro cracks (irrespective whether these are existing material…

We study a physical model for the interaction between general inclusions bound to fluid membranes that possess finite tension, as well as the usual bending rigidity. We are motivated by an interest in proteins bound to cell membranes that…

We present an edge-based framework for the study of geometric elastic network models to model mechanical interactions in physical systems. We use a formulation in the edge space, instead of the usual node-centric approach, to characterise…

The analytical generalization of the classical dynamical friction formula (derived under the assumption that all the field particles have the same mass) to the case in which the masses of the field particles are distributed with a mass…

Numerical simulation of numerous mm/cm-sized particles embedded in a gaseous disk has become an important tool in the study of planet formation and in understanding the dust distribution in observed protoplanetary disks. However, the mutual…

We study the drag force and diffusion coefficient with respect to a moving heavy quark in a D-instanton background, which corresponds to the Yang-Mills theory in the deconfining, high-temperature phase. It is shown that the presence of the…

Using a non-perturbative classical approach, we study the dynamics of a mobile particle interacting with an infinite one-dimensional (1D) chain of harmonic oscillators. This minimal system is an effective model for many 1D transport…

The phase-field approach to fracture has been proven to be a mathematically sound and easy to implement method for computing crack propagation with arbitrary crack paths. Hereby crack growth is driven by energy minimization resulting in a…

Expositions of the Euler equations for the rotation of a rigid body often invoke the idea of a specially damped system whose energy dissipates while its angular momentum magnitude is conserved in the body frame. An attempt to explicitly…

We present general first principles derivation of expression for current-induced forces. The expression is applicable in non-equilibrium molecular systems with arbitrary intra-molecular interactions and for any electron-nuclei coupling. It…