Related papers: Nonlinear mechanics of rigidifying curves
While the shape equations describing the equilibrium of an unstretchable thin sheet that is free to bend are known, the boundary conditions that supplement these equations on free edges have remained elusive. Intuitively, unstretchability…
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…
Thin liquid films on surfaces are part of our everyday life, they serve e.g. as coatings or lubricants. The stability of a thin layer is governed by interfacial forces, described by the effective interface potential, and has been subject of…
Large deformations play a central role in the shape transformations of slender active and biological structures. A classical example is the eversion of the Volvox embryo, which demonstrates the need for shell theories that can describe…
How much energy does it take to stamp a thin elastic shell flat? Motivated by recent experiments on the wrinkling patterns of floating shells, we develop a rigorous method via $\Gamma$-convergence for answering this question to leading…
Disordered biopolymer gels have striking mechanical properties including strong nonlinearities. In the case of athermal gels (such as collagen-I) the nonlinearity has long been associated with a crossover from a bending dominated to a…
Most idealized studies of stratified shear instabilities assume that the shear interface and the buoyancy interface are coincident. We discuss the role of asymmetry on the evolution of shear instabilities. Using linear stability theory and…
A central problem of geometry is the tiling of space with simple structures. The classical solutions, such as triangles, squares, and hexagons in the plane and cubes and other polyhedra in three-dimensional space are built with sharp…
Recent work demonstrates that finite-deformation nonlinear elasticity is essential in the accurate modeling of wrinkling in highly stretched thin films. Geometrically exact models predict an isola-center bifurcation, indicating that for a…
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…
When stretched in one direction, most solids shrink in the transverse directions. In soft silicone gels, however, we observe that small-scale topographical features grow upon stretching. A quantitative analysis of the topography shows that…
Using a geometrically motivated 8-parameter ansatz through the thickness, we reduce a three-dimensional shell-like geometrically nonlinear Cosserat material to a fully two-dimensional shell model. Curvature effects are fully taken into…
We describe our modelling of the radiatively cooling shocks and their thin shells with various numerical tools in different physical and calculational setups. We inspect structure of the dense shell, its formation and evolution, pointing…
A poleward-thinning ice shell can drive circulation in the subsurface oceans of icy moons by imposing a meridional temperature gradient--colder at the equator than the pole--through the freezing point suppression due to pressure. This…
The structural analysis of ultra-lightweight flexible shells and membranes may require the adoption of complex nonlinear strain-displacement relations. These may be approximated and simplified in some circumstances, e.g., in the case of…
In this paper, we propose a novel one-dimensional (1D) discrete differential geometry (DDG)-based numerical method for geometrically nonlinear mechanics analysis (e.g., buckling and snapping) of axisymmetric shell structures. Our numerical…
Thin sheets that are forced at their boundaries develop a variety of shapes aimed at minimising elastic energy by curving spontaneously in ways that break the symmetry of the sheet and the forcing. Characterising such buckling generally…
The application of pure torsion to a long and thin cylindrical rod is known to provoke a twisting instability, evolving from an initial kink to a knot. In the torsional parallel-plate rheometry of stubby cylinders, the geometrical…
We study the $\Gamma$-limit of 3d nonlinear elasticity for shells of small, variable thickness, around an arbitrary smooth 2d surface.
Cutting-edge smart materials are transforming the domains of soft robotics, actuators, and sensors by harnessing diverse non-mechanical stimuli, such as electric and magnetic fields. Accurately modelling their physical behaviour…