Related papers: The mechanical equilibrium of soft solids with sur…
The effect of self-affine roughness on solid contact is examined with molecular dynamics and continuum calculations. The contact area and normal and lateral stiffnesses rise linearly with the applied load, and the load rises exponentially…
Inspired by recent experimental observations of a harmonically excited elastic foil hovering near a wall while supporting substantial weight, we develop a theoretical framework that describes the underlying physical effects. Using…
Integral expressions are determined for the elastic displacement and stress fields due to stationary or moving dislocation loops in finite samples. These general expressions are valid for anisotropic media as well. Specifically for the…
Granular materials are ubiquitous in nature and are used extensively in daily life and in industry. The modeling of these materials remains challenging; therefore, finding models with acceptable predictive accuracy that at the same time…
In recent work, it was shown that elasticity theory can break down in amorphous solids subjected to nonuniform {\em static} loads. The elastic fields are screened by geometric dipoles; these stem from gradients of the quadrupole field…
Tissue surface tension influences cell sorting and tissue fusion. Earlier mechanical studies suggest that multicellular spheroids actively reinforce their surface tension with applied force. Here we study this open question through…
We study the phenomenon of migration of the small molecular weight component of a binary polymer mixture to the free surface using mean field and self-consistent field theories. By proposing a free energy functional that incorporates…
We derive two consequences of the distributional form of the stress equilibrium condition while incorporating piecewise smooth stress and body force fields with singular concentrations on an interface. First we obtain the local equilibrium…
Biological cells in soft materials can be modeled as anisotropic force contraction dipoles. The corresponding elastic interaction potentials are long-ranged ($\sim 1/r^3$ with distance $r$) and depend sensitively on elastic constants,…
Elasticity has long been regarded as a property exclusive to material media. Here we uncover its hidden existence in the spin degree of freedom. We introduce spin elasticity-an intrinsic mechanism that governs recoverable deformation of…
The understanding of the spreading of liquids on solid surfaces is an important challenge for contemporary physics. Today, the motion of the contact line formed at the intersection of two immiscible fluids and a solid is still subject to…
A sessile liquid drop can deform the substrate on which it rests if the solid is sufficiently "soft". In this paper we compute the detailed spatial structure of the capillary forces exerted by the drop on the solid substrate using a model…
It is shown on the basis of scaling arguments that a disordered interface between two elastic solids will quite generally exhibit static and "dry friction" (i.e., kinetic friction which does not vanish as the sliding velocity approaches…
We investigate the question of stability of a solid thin film which experiences external interactions such as van der Waals forces from a contacting surface or forces from an external electric field. Both perfectly elastic and viscoelastic…
Two mathematical models are developed within the theoretical framework of large strain elasticity for the determination of upper and lower bounds on the total strain energy of a finitely deformed hyperelastic body in unilateral contact with…
The dynamics of a thin elastic sheet lubricated by a narrow layer of liquid is relevant to various situations and length scales. In the continuity of our previous work on viscous wakes, we study theoretically the effects of an external…
Snapping mechanisms are investigated for an elastic strip with ends imposed to move and rotate in time. Attacking the problem analytically via Euler's elastica and the second variation of the total potential energy, the number of stable…
The paper studies the equilibrium configurations of inextensible elastic membranes exhibiting lateral fluidity. Using a continuum description of the membrane's motions based on the surface Navier--Stokes equations with bending forces, the…
Thousands of plant and animal species have been observed to have superhydrophobic surfaces that lead to various novel behaviors [1-5]. These observations have inspired attempts to create artificial superhydrophobic surfaces, given such…
We report, for the first time, some experimental observations regarding a new type of long range interaction between rigid particles that prevails when they are suspended in an soft elastic gel. A denser particle submerges itself to a…