Related papers: Shape Selection and Multi-stability in Helical Rib…
The physical gelation of colloids produces elastic structures that are commonly used to stabilize complex fluids in multiple industries. However, the ability to control the level of elastic modulus of these materials is limited by the…
Random packings of stiff rods are self-supporting mechanical structures stabilized by long range interactions induced by contacts. To understand the geometrical and topological complexity of the packings, we first deploy X-ray computerized…
We address the mechanics of an elastic ribbon subjected to twist and tensile load. Motivated by the classical work of Green and a recent experiment that discovered a plethora of morphological instabilities, we introduce a comprehensive…
The nonlinear mechanics of a flexible elastic rod constrained at its edges by a pair of sliding sleeves is analyzed. The planar equilibrium configurations of this variable-length elastica are found to have shape defined only by the…
The occurrence of coiled or helical morphologies is common in nature, from plant roots to DNA packaging into viral capsids, as well as in applications such as oil drilling processes. In many examples, chiral structures result from the…
Efforts to modulate the electronic properties of atomically thin crystalline nanoribbons requires precise control over their morphology. Here, we perform atomistic simulations on freestanding graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) to first identify…
Helical structures like alpha helices, DNA, and microtubules have profound importance in biology. It has been suggested that these periodic arrangements of constituent units could support collective excitations similarly to crystalline…
Starostin and van der Heijden [arXiv:1111.2029] question the validity of the results reported in our Letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 238104 (2010)] regarding the existence of spontaneous helical structure in finite-temperature developable…
Designing smart devices with tunable shapes has important applications in industrial manufacture. In this paper, we investigate the nonlinear deformation and the morphological transitions between buckling, necking, and snap-through…
The variational static formulation contributed in [International Journal of Engineering Science 143, 73-91 (2019)] is generalized in the present paper to model axial and flexural dynamic behaviors of elastic nano-beams by nonlocal strain…
Variable stiffness is a key capability in biological and robotic systems, enabling adaptive interaction across tasks and environments. Mechanical metamaterials offer an alternative to conventional mechatronic solutions by encoding stiffness…
We study equilibrium configurations of non-Euclidean plates, in which the reference metric is uniaxially periodic. This work is motivated by recent experiments on thin sheets of composite thermally responsive gels [1]. Such sheets bend…
The shape of the building blocks plays a crucial role in directing self-assembly towards desired architectures. Out of the many different shapes, helix has a unique position. Helical structures are ubiquitous in nature and a helical shape…
In biological systems, both skin sensitivity and body flexibility play crucial roles in haptic perception. Fully soft robots often suffer from structural fragility and delayed sensory processing, limiting their practical functionality. The…
Rotating the clamped ends of a buckled elastica induces a snap-through instability. Predicting the limit point and determining the equilibria at the start and end of the snap are routine computations in the quasi-static setting. The…
In this work, we investigate the use of pre-twisted metallic ribbons as building blocks for shape-changing structures. We manufacture these elements by twisting initially flat ribbons about their (lengthwise) centroidal axis into a…
Residual stresses may appear in elastic bodies due to the formation of misfits in the micro-structure, driven by plastic deformations, thermal or growth processes. They are especially widespread in living matter, resulting from the dynamic…
Flexible mechanical metamaterials possess repeating structural motifs that imbue them with novel, exciting properties including programmability, anomalous elastic moduli and nonlinear and robust response. We address such structures via…
We investigate the statistical mechanics of long developable ribbons of finite width and very small thickness. The constraint of isometric deformations in these ribbon-like structures that follows from the geometric separation of scales…
Carbon nanotubes and biological filaments each spontaneously assemble into kinked helices, rings, and "tennis racket" shapes due to competition between elastic and interfacial effects. We show that the slender geometry is a more important…