Related papers: Shape transitions in soft spheres regulated by ela…
The equations of a planar elastica under pressure can be rewritten in a useful form by parametrising the variables in terms of the local orientation angle, $\theta$, instead of the arc length. This ``$\theta$-formulation'' lends itself to a…
We present a numerical study of the shape taken by a spherical elastic surface when the volume it encloses is decreased. For the range of 2D parameters where such surface may modelize a thin shell of an isotropic elastic material, the mode…
We explore how thermal fluctuations affect the mechanics of thin amorphous spherical shells. In flat membranes with a shear modulus, thermal fluctuations increase the bending rigidity and reduce the in-plane elastic moduli in a…
Experiments and theory have shown that cell monolayers and epithelial tissues exhibit solid-liquid and glass-liquid transitions. These transitions are biologically relevant to our understanding of embryonic development, wound healing, and…
Recent experiments have shown that surface stresses in soft materials can have a significant strain-dependence. Here we explore the implications of this surface elasticity to show how, and when, we expect it to arise. We develop the…
We investigate the relationship between pre-buckling and post-buckling states as a function of shell properties, within the deflation process of shells of an isotropic material. With an original and low-cost set-up that allows to measure…
We study the fluid-mediated approach of a deformable axisymmetric object towards a rigid substrate, focusing on how its shape influences contact formation. For low approach velocities and large Stokes numbers, we show that sharper profiles…
Epithelial tissues act as barriers and, therefore, must repair themselves, respond to environmental changes and grow without compromising their integrity. Consequently, they exhibit complex viscoelastic rheological behavior where…
We investigate the swelling dynamics driven by solvent absorption in a hydrogel sphere immersed in a solvent bath, through an accurate computational model and numerical study. We extensively describe the transient process from dry to wet…
We present a pedagogical review of the swelling thermodynamics and phase transitions of polymer gels. In particular, we discuss how features of the volume phase transition of the gel's osmotic equilibrium is analogous to other transitions…
A mesoscopic model of amorphous plasticity is discussed in the context of depinning models. After embedding in a d + 1 dimensional space, where the accumulated plastic strain lives along the additional dimension, the gradual plastic…
A model of shear thickening in dense suspensions of Brownian soft sphere colloidal particles is established. It suggests that shear thickening in soft sphere suspensions can be interpreted as a shear induced phase transition. Based on a…
The elastic deformation of a soft solid induced by capillary forces crucially relies on the excess stress inside the solid-liquid interface. While for a liquid-liquid interface this "surface stress" is strictly identical to the "surface…
The surface free energy of ideal hard rods near curved hard surfaces is determined to second order in curvature for surfaces of general shape. In accordance with previous results for spherical and cylindrical surfaces it is found that this…
A buckled sheet offers a reservoir of material that can be unfurled at a later time. For sufficiently thin yet stiff materials, this geometric process has a striking mechanical feature: when the slack runs out, the material locks to further…
When placed on an inclined plane, a perfect 2D disk or 3D sphere simply rolls down in a straight line under gravity. But how is the rolling affected if these shapes are irregular or random? Treating the terminal rolling speed as an order…
Shell buckling is central in many biological structures and advanced functional materials, even if, traditionally, this elastic instability has been regarded as a catastrophic phenomenon to be avoided for engineering structures. Either way,…
Within the framework of the Helfrich elastic theory of membranes and of differential geometry we study the possible instabilities of spherical vesicles towards double bubbles. We find that not only temperature, but also magnetic fields can…
The transition from a nematic to an isotropic state in a self-closing spherical liquid crystal shell with tangential alignment is a stimulating phenomenon to investigate, as the topology dictates that the shell exhibits local isotropic…
The Vertex Model for epithelia models the apical surface of the tissue by a tiling, with polygons representing cells and edges representing cell-cell junctions. The mechanics are described by an energy governed by deviations from a target…