Related papers: Elastic instabilities in a layered cerebral cortex…
Traumatic axonal injury occurs when loads experienced on the tissue-scale are transferred to the individual axons. Mechanical characterization of axon deformation especially under dynamic loads however is extremely difficult owing to their…
An adhesively stressed thin film of a soft hydrogel confined between two rigid flat substrates auto-roughens with its dominant wavelength exhibiting pronounced dependence on the film thickness (H). A linear stability analysis confirmed that…
Ab initio density functional theory has been used to analyze flexural modes, elastic constants, and atomic corrugations on single and bi-layer graphene. Frequencies of flexural modes are sensitive to compressive stress; its variation under…
We poorly understand the properties of amorphous systems at small length scales, where a continuous elastic description breaks down. This is apparent when one considers their vibrational and transport properties, or the way forces propagate…
A constitutive relation between stress and strain relative to a reference state is the basic assumption of elasticity theory. However, in living matter, force generation is governed by motor molecule activity, which does not depend on…
Entangled states are ubiquitous amongst fibrous materials, whether naturally occurring (keratin, collagen, DNA) or synthetic (nanotube assemblies, elastane). A key mechanical characteristic of these systems is their ability to reorganise in…
A hydrostatically stressed soft elastic film circumvents the imposed constraint by undergoing a morphological instability, the wavelength of which is dictated by the minimization of the surface and the elastic strain energies of the film.…
An inhomogeneous anisotropic physical model of the brain cortex is presented that predicts the emergence of non--evanescent (weakly damped) wave--like modes propagating in the thin cortex layers transverse to both the mean neural fiber…
We investigate the buckling and post-buckling properties of a hyperelastic half-space coated by two hyperelastic layers when the composite structure is subjected to a uniaxial compression. In the case of a half-space coated with a {\it…
Biological cells embedded in fibrous matrices have been observed to form inter-cellular bands of dense and aligned fibers, through which they mechanically interact over long distances. Such matrix-mediated cellular interactions have been…
Large bundles of myelinated axons, called white matter, anatomically connect disparate brain regions together and compose the structural core of the human connectome. We recently proposed a method of measuring the local integrity along the…
When a spherical elastic capsule is deflated, it first buckles axisymmetrically and subsequently loses its axisymmetry in a secondary instability, where the dimple acquires a polygonal shape. We explain this secondary polygonal buckling in…
Like a cr\^epe resting on a plate, a thin elastic sheet can fold smoothly under its own weight, forming reversible shapes without creases or imposed hinges. Such soft folds arise from a balance between elastic bending and gravity, yet their…
We analyse the buckling stability of a thin, viscous sheet when subject to simple shear, providing conditions for the onset of the dominant out-of-plane modes using two models: (i) an asymptotic theory for the dynamics of a viscous plate…
We discover a remarkable correlation between the inter-tremor time interval and the slenderness ratio of the overriding plate in subduction zones all over the world. In order to understand this phenomenon better, we perform numerical…
We develop a general incremental framework for hyperelastic solids whose surfaces exhibit both stretch-dependent and curvature-dependent elastic behavior. Building upon a variational formulation of curvature-dependent surface elasticity, we…
We study the viscoelasticity of an active solution of polar biofilaments and motor proteins. Using a molecular model, we derive the constitutive equations for the stress tensor in the isotropic phase and in phases with liquid crystalline…
We study a class of models for brittle fracture: elastic theory models which allow for cracks but not for plastic flow. We show that these models exhibit, at all finite temperatures, a transition to fracture under applied load similar to…
The cell cortex is a thin layer beneath the plasma membrane that gives animal cells mechanical resistance and drives most of their shape changes, from migration, division to multicellular morphogenesis. It is mainly composed of actin…
We investigate the elastic properties of anisotropic elastomers with a double-twist director field, which is a model for collagen fibrils or blue phases. We observe a significant Poynting-like effect, coupling torsion (fibril twist) and…