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Several experiments have demonstrated the existence of an electro-mechanical effect in many biological tissues and hydrogels, and its actual influence on growth, migration, and pattern formation. Here, to model these interactions and…
A generalization of the Euler's elastic problem, i.e., finding a stationary configuration (planar elastica) of the Bernoulli's thin ideal elastic rod with boundary conditions defined through fixed endpoints and/or tangents at the endpoints,…
A continuum mechanical theory incorporating an extension of Finsler geometry is formulated for fibrous soft solids. Especially if of biologic origin, such solids are nonlinear elastic with evolving microstructures. For example, elongated…
It is fairly well known that rotation in three dimensions can be expressed as a quadratic in a skew symmetric matrix via the Euler-Rodrigues formula. A generalized Euler-Rodrigues polynomial of degree 2n in a skew symmetric generating…
Soft elastic filaments that can be stretched, bent and twisted exhibit a range of topologically and geometrically complex morphologies that include plectonemes, solenoids, knot-like and braid-like structures. We combine numerical…
Flexible fibers at the microscopic scale, such as flagella and cilia, play essential roles in biological and synthetic systems. The dynamics of these slender filaments in viscous flows involve intricate interactions between their mechanical…
Two types of non-holonomic constraints (imposing a prescription on velocity) are analyzed, connected to an end of a (visco)elastic rod, straight in its undeformed configuration. The equations governing the nonlinear dynamics are obtained…
Soft slender structures are ubiquitous in natural and artificial systems and can be observed at scales that range from the nanometric to the kilometric, from polymers to space tethers. We present a practical numerical approach to simulate…
This article proposes a model including thermal effects for closed supercoiled DNA. Existing models include an elastic rod. Euler's elastica, ideal elastic rods on a plane, have only two kinds of closed shapes, the circle and a…
In this paper, the modelling strategy of a Cosserat rod element (CRE) is addressed systematically for 3-dimensional dynamical analysis of slender structures. We employ the exact nonlinear kinematic relationships in the sense of Cosserat…
This review presents the elastic theory of low-dimensional (one- and two-dimensional) continua and its applications in bio- and nano-structures. First, the curve and surface theory, as the geometric representation of the low-dimensional…
We initiate the development of a theory of the elasticity of nanoscale objects based upon new physical concepts which remain properly defined on the nanoscale. This theory provides a powerful way of understanding nanoscale elasticity in…
One cannot pull an open, curved string along itself. This fact is clearly reflected in the unwrapping motion of a string or chain as it is dragged around an object, and implies strong consequences for slender structures in passive…
The dynamics of rapid brittle cracks is commonly studied in the framework of linear elastic fracture mechanics where nonlinearities are neglected. However, recent experimental and theoretical work demonstrated explicitly the importance of…
The manipulation of flexible objects such as cables, wires and fresh food items by robot hands forms a special challenge in robot grasp mechanics. This paper considers the steering of flexible linear objects in planar environments by two…
A generalized hydrodynamic theory that systematically incorporates elasticity and viscoelasticity had been derived about a quarter of a century ago. It is based on a strictly Euler point of view, as is natural for hydrodynamics. We used and…
Slender fibers are ubiquitous in biology, physics, and engineering, with prominent examples including bacterial flagella and cytoskeletal fibers. In this setting, slender body theories (SBTs), which give the resistance on the fiber…
The equilibrium state of a flexible fiber settling in a viscous fluid is examined using a combination of macroscopic experiments, numerical simulations and scaling arguments. We identify three regimes having different signatures on this…
A slender thread of elastic hydrogel is susceptible to a surface instability that is reminiscent of the classical Rayleigh-Plateau instability of liquid jets. The final, highly nonlinear states that are observed in experiments arise from a…
We combine experiments with simulations to investigate the fluid-structure interaction of a flexible helical rod rotating in a viscous fluid, under low Reynolds number conditions. Our analysis takes into account the coupling between the…