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We experimentally study the formation of surface patterns in grafted hydrogel films of nanometer-to-micrometer thicknesses during imbibition-driven swelling followed by evaporation-driven shrinking. Creases are known to form at the hydrogel…
An object withdrawn from a liquid bath is coated with a thin layer of liquid. Along with the liquid, impurities such as particles present in the bath can be transferred to the withdrawn substrate. Entrained particles locally modify the…
Plastic deformation of micron and sub-micron scale specimens is characterized by intermittent sequences of large strain bursts (dislocation avalanches) which are separated by regions of near-elastic loading. In the present investigation we…
This paper presents an experimental study on thermal transport to single water droplets evaporating on heated bi-phobic surfaces consisting of a superhydrophobic matrix with a circular hydrophobic pattern with strong contact line pinning. A…
The electrical properties of graphene depend sensitively on the substrate. For example, recent measurements of epitaxial graphene on SiC show resistance arising from steps on the substrate. Here we calculate the deformation of graphene at…
A numerical study of multi-phase granular materials based upon micro-mechanical modelling is proposed. Discrete element simulations are used to investigate capillary induced effects on the friction properties of a granular assembly in the…
Hydrodynamics and confinement dominate bacterial mobility near solid or air-water boundaries, causing flagellated bacteria to move in circular trajectories. This phenomenon results from the counter-rotation between the bacterial body and…
The dynamic of contact formation between soft materials immersed in a fluid is accompanied by fluid drainage and elastic deformation. As a result, controlling the coupling between lubrication pressure and elasticity provides strategies to…
Soft materials are known to deform due to a variety of mechanisms, including capillarity, buoyancy, and swelling. In this paper, we present experiments on polyvinylsiloxane gel threads partially-immersed in three liquids with different…
The understanding of sliding friction for wet, patterned surfaces from first principles is challenging. While emerging applications have sought design principles from biology, a general framework is lacking because soft interfaces…
The deposition of a viscoplastic fluid onto a substrate can be achieved by simply moving apart two plates initially separated by a fluid filled gap, where the footprint shape depends on the initiation of a fingering instability. Here, we…
A mathematical model for the evolution of, and deposition from, a thin particle-laden droplet on an infinitely thick, isotropic, flooded, porous substrate with interconnected pores undergoing simultaneous evaporation and imbibition is…
Microcrystals deform very differently from their macroscopic counterparts, displaying a size-dependent yield stress and intermittent plastic strain bursts. Here we demonstrate that size effects and strain bursts may be just two different…
Microcapsules are a key class of microscale materials with applications in areas ranging from personal care to biomedicine, and with increasing potential to act as extracellular matrix (ECM) models of hollow organs or tissues. Such capsules…
This paper is devoted to studies of the mechanical deformation of the S. aureus cell wall. The bacterium is modelled as a thin elastic membrane containing cytoplasm, which is treated as an incompressible fluid. Deformation occurs via Van…
We report on the capillary-induced snapping of elastic beams. We show that a millimeter-sized water drop gently deposited on a thin buckled polymer strip may trigger an elastocapillary snap-through instability. We investigate experimentally…
When amorphous solids are subjected to simple or pure strain, they exhibit elastic increase in stress, punctuated by plastic events that become denser (in strain) upon increasing the system size. It is customary to assume in theoretical…
We demonstrate a novel technique to fabricate mechanically tunable slippery surfaces using one dimensional (anisotropic) elastic wrinkles. Such wrinkles show tunable topography (amplitude) on the application of mechanical strain. Following…
Biofilms, bacteria cells surrounded by a self-produced polymeric matrix, are common on medical devices and lead to many hospital infections. The biofilm lifecycle includes disassembly and dispersion, where bacteria clusters detach from the…
The near-surface swimming patterns of bacteria are strongly determined by the hydrodynamic interactions between bacteria and the surface, which trap bacteria in smooth circular trajectories that lead to inefficient surface exploration.…