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We analyze the structural behavior of a single polymer chain grafted to an attractive, flexible surface. Our model is composed of a coarse-grained bead-and-spring polymer and a tethered membrane. By means of extensive parallel tempering…
Recently, it has been found experimentally that hydrated nacre exhibits a nonlinear mechanical response. While mechanical nonlinearity has been shown to be important in other biological structures, such as spider webs, the implications of…
We study the mechanical contact between a deformable body with a wavy surface and a rigid flat taking into account pressurized fluid trapped in the interface. A finite element model is formulated for a general problem of trapped fluid for…
In order to enhance the modeling of metallic materials behavior in non proportional loadings, a modification of the classical elastic-plastic models including distortion of the yield surface is proposed. The new yield criterion uses the…
Surface roughness emerges naturally during mechanical removal of material, fracture, chemical deposition, plastic deformation, indentation, and other processes. Here, we use continuum simulations to show how roughness which is neither…
Exploring the dynamical response of mechanical metamaterials has gathered increasing attention in the last decades, enabling the design of microstructures exotically interacting with elastic waves (focusing, channeling, band-gaps, negative…
The mechanosensitivity of cells, which determines how they are able to respond to mechanical signals received from their environment, is crucial for the functioning of all biological systems. In experiments, cells placed on cyclically…
We study networks of coupled bistable elastic elements, recently proposed as a model for crumpled thin sheets. The networks are poised on the verge of a localized instability, and the model allows unique access to both local and global…
Very recently, the construction of twist actuators from magnetorheological gels and elastomers has been suggested. These materials consist of magnetizable colloidal particles embedded in a soft elastic polymeric environment. The twist…
Living organisms can demonstrate highly adaptable and sophisticated responses using memory resulting from repeated exposure to external conditions or training. However, realizing similar adaptability in mechanical responses in inanimate,…
We demonstrate that the elasticity of jammed solids is nonlocal. By forcing frictionless soft sphere packings at varying wavelength, we directly access their transverse and longitudinal compliances without resorting to curve fitting. The…
Stick-slip motion, a common phenomenon observed during crawling of cells, is found to be strongly sensitive to the substrate stiffness. Stick-slip behaviours have previously been investigated typically using purely elastic substrates. For a…
Compacted unbound granular materials are extensively used as sub-layer in pavement design. Most pavement design guides assume that they are responsible for the degradation and deformation of the roads and railways that they support. Biaxial…
The question of how a disordered material's microstructure translates into macroscopic mechanical response is central to understanding and designing materials like pastes, foams and metallic glasses. Here, we examine a 2D soft jammed…
Biomimicry has played a pivotal role in robotics. In contrast to rigid robots, bio-inspired robots exhibit an inherent compliance, facilitating versatile movements and operations in constrained spaces. The robot implementation in…
We analyse the behaviour of thin composite plates whose material properties vary periodically in-plane and possess a high degree of contrast between the individual components. Starting from the equations of three-dimensional linear…
Soft porous materials, such as biological tissues and soils, are exposed to periodic deformations in a variety of natural and industrial contexts. The detailed flow and mechanics of these deformations have not yet been systematically…
We develop topological methods for characterizing the relationship between polymer chain entanglement and bulk viscoelastic responses. We introduce generalized Linking Number and Writhe characteristics that are applicable to open linear…
The superiority of many natural surfaces at resisting soft, sticky biofoulants has inspired the integration of dynamic topography with mechanical instability to promote self-cleaning artificial surfaces. The physics behind this novel…
In a companion article (Part 1), we presented the development of a thick continuum-based (CB) shell finite element (FE) based on Mindlin-Reissner theory. We verified the accuracy, efficiency and locking insensitivity of the element in…