Related papers: Curvature-controlled defect localization in crysta…
Elucidating the interplay of defect and stress at the microscopic level is a fundamental physical problem that has strong connection with materials science. Here, based on the two-dimensional crystal model, we show that the instability mode…
Drops of active liquid crystal have recently shown the ability to self-propel, which was associated with topological defects in the orientation of active filaments [Sanchez {\em et al.}, Nature {\bf 491}, 431 (2013)]. Here, we study the…
Disordered materials occur naturally and also provide a broader design space than ordered or crystalline structures. We investigate a two-dimensional disordered network metamaterial constructed from a Delaunay triangulation of an underlying…
When a flexible filament is confined to a fluid interface, the balance between capillary attraction, bending resistance, and tension from an external source can lead to a self-buckling instability. We perform an analysis of this instability…
Thin films or sheets subjected to external forces often undergo mechanical instability, leading to regular patterns of wrinkles, folds, and creases. As can be anticipated from the difficulty of flattening a curved globe, any natural…
Curvature and mechanics are intimately connected for thin materials, and this coupling between geometry and physical properties is readily seen in folded structures from intestinal villi and pollen grains, to wrinkled membranes and…
Curved structures in soft matter and biological systems commonly emerge as a result of self-assembly processes where building blocks aggregate in a controlled manner, giving rise to specific system structure and properties. Learning how to…
Nonlinear mechanics of solids is an exciting field that encompasses both beautiful mathematics, such as the emergence of instabilities and the formation of complex patterns, as well as multiple applications. Two-dimensional crystals and van…
When colloidal particles are vertically confined to a gap of between 1.3-1.6 particle diameters, they pack into buckled crystals of particles in either "up" or "down" states. Neighboring particles tend to occupy opposite states, analogous…
We investigate topography-driven generation of defects in liquid crystals films coating frozen surfaces of spatially varying Gaussian curvature whose topology does not automatically require defects in the ground state. We study in…
We evaluate the loss of stability of axially compressed slender and thick-walled tubes subject to a residual stress distribution. The nonlinear theory of elasticity, when used to analyze the underlying deformation, shows that the residual…
Twisted and rope-like assemblies of filamentous molecules are common and vital structural elements in cells and tissue of living organisms. We study the intrinsic frustration occurring in these materials between the two-dimensional…
The mechanics of lower dimensional elastic structures depends strongly on the geometry of their stress-free state. Elastic deformations separate into in-plane stretching and lower energy out-of-plane bending deformations. For elastic…
Topological defects are distinctive signatures of liquid crystals. They profoundly affect the viscoelastic behavior of the fluid by constraining the orientational structure in a way that inevitably requires global changes not achievable…
Ice systems are prototypes of locally constrained dynamics. This is exemplified in Coulomb-liquid phases where a large space of configurations is sampled, each satisfying local ice rules. Dynamics proceeds through `flipping' rings, i.e.,…
This work investigates the morphological stability of a soft body composed of two heavy elastic layers, attached to a rigid surface and subjected only to the bulk gravity force. Using theoretical and computational tools, we characterize the…
For the past decade, droplet interface bilayers (DIBs) have had an increased prevalence in biomolecular and biophysical literature. However, much of the underlying physics of these platforms are poorly characterized. To further the…
This review presents recent progress in understanding constraints and consequences of close-packing geometry of filamentous or columnar materials possessing non-trivial textures, focusing in particular on the common motifs of twisted and…
From cell development to space rockets, the mechanical stability of thin shells is crucial across many industrial and natural processes. However, predicting shells' failure properties remains an open challenge, owing to their sensitivity to…
Membrane bending is an extensively studied problem from both modeling and experimental perspectives because of the wide implications of curvature generation in cell biology. Many of the curvature generating aspects in membranes can be…