Related papers: Snapping of Bistable, Prestressed Cylindrical Shel…

Shell buckling is central in many biological structures and advanced functional materials, even if, traditionally, this elastic instability has been regarded as a catastrophic phenomenon to be avoided for engineering structures. Either way,…

Transitions from reversible to irreversible or fluctuating states above a critical density and shear amplitude have been extensively studied in non-thermal cyclically sheared suspensions and amorphous solids. Here, we propose that the same…

We argue that nucleation of brittle cracks in initially flawless soft elastic solids is preceded by a nonlinear elastic instability, which cannot be captured without accounting for geometrical precise description of finite elastic…

In this paper we address the following design problem: what is the shape of a plate and the associated pre-stress that relaxes toward a given three-dimensional shell? As isometric transformations conserve the gaussian curvature,…

We study the dynamical behavior of a one dimensional interface interacting with a sticky unpenetrable substrate or wall. The interface is subject to two effects going in opposite directions. Contact between the interface and the substrate…

For the contact of two finite portions of interacting rigid crystalline surfaces, we compute the dependence of the pinning energy barrier on the misfit angle and contact area. The resulting data are used to investigate the distribution of…

We performed dynamic pressure buckling experiments on defect-seeded spherical shells made of a common silicone elastomer. Unlike in quasi-static experiments, shells buckled at ostensibly subcritical pressures (i.e. below the…

A structural element is designed and investigated, forming the basis for the development of an elastic multistable metamaterial. The leitmotif of the structural design is the implementation of a strut characterized by a bifurcation…

Viscous flows within an elastic structure apply stress on the solid-liquid interface. The stress-field created by the viscous flow can be utilized to counter stress created by external forces and thus may be applied as a tool for delaying…

Slender elastic objects such as a column tend to buckle under loads. While static buckling is well understood as a bifurcation problem, the evolution of shapes during dynamic buckling is much harder to study. Elastic rings under normal…

We use computational methods to determine the minimal yield-stress required in order to hold static a buoyant bubble in a yield-stress liquid. The static limit is governed by the bubble shape, the dimensionless surface tension ($\gamma$)…

Unlike macroscopic multistable mechanical systems such as snap bracelets or elastic shells that must be physically manipulated into various conformations, microscopic systems can undergo spontaneous conformation switching between…

Active control of wrinkling in soft film-substrate composites using electric fields is a critical challenge in tunable material systems. Here, we investigate the electro-mechanical instability of a soft dielectric film bonded to a…

Cavitation in solids can be caused by tensile dead-load traction or impulse traction. The two different types of boundary conditions lead to different static and dynamic solutions. In addition, if the material is stochastic, i.e., the model…

Conforming materials to rigid substrates with Gaussian curvature --- positive for spheres and negative for saddles --- has proven a versatile tool to guide the self-assembly of defects such as scars, pleats, folds, blisters, and liquid…

Cells and tissues change shape both to carry out their function and during pathology. In most cases, these deformations are driven from within the systems themselves. This is permitted by a range of molecular actors, such as active…

We discuss the stick-slip motion of an elastic block sliding along a rigid substrate. We argue that for a given external shear stress this system shows a discontinuous nonequilibrium transition from a uniform stick state to uniform sliding…

A light-weight "inflatable" tensioned-membrane-structure vacuum container is proposed and its stability is analyzed. The proposed structure consists of a pressurized lobed cylindrical "wall" surrounding a central evacuated space. Stability…

Mechanical metamaterials made of flexible building blocks can exhibit a plethora of extreme mechanical responses, such as negative elastic constants, shape-changes, programmability and memory. To date, dissipation has largely remained…

A symmetrically-buckled arch whose boundaries are clamped at an angle has two stable equilibria: an inverted and a natural state. When the distance between the clamps is increased (i.e. the confinement is decreased) the system snaps from…