Related papers: Two phase models for elastic membranes with soft i…
We consider an elastic composite material containing particulate inclusions in a soft elastic matrix that is bounded by a rigid wall, e.g., the substrate. If such a composite serves as a soft actuator, forces are imposed on or induced…
We derive the effective energy density of thin membranes of liquid crystal elastomers as the Gamma-limit of a widely used bulk model. These membranes can display fine-scale features both due to wrinkling that one expects in thin elastic…
We examine the response of a soft ferromagnetic film to an in-plane applied magnetic field. Our theory, based on asymptotic analysis of the micromagnetic energy in the thin-film limit, proceeds in two steps: first we determine the magnetic…
We present a density-functional study of a binary phase-separating mixture of soft core particles immersed in a random matrix of quenched soft core particles of larger size. This is a model for a binary polymer mixture immersed in a…
We study a theoretical model of mud cracks, that is, the fracture patterns resulting from the contraction with drying in a thin layer of a mixture of granules and water. In this model, we consider the slip on the bottom of this layer and…
This paper presents a modeling framework to describe the driving mechanisms of cyclic failure in brittle and ductile materials, including cyclic plasticity and fatigue crack growth. A variational model is devised using the energetic…
The propagation of a 3D crack in an heterogeneous material is studied using a phase field model. It is shown that in the case of randomly distributed inclusions of soft material in a matrix, the nature of the distribution has little effect…
This paper investigates the effects of plasticity on the effective fracture toughness. A layered material is considered as a modelling system. An elastic-plastic phase-field model and a surfing boundary condition are used to study how the…
In many processes for crystalline materials such as precipitation, heteroepitaxy, alloying, and phase transformation, lattice expansion or compression of embedded domains occurs. This can significantly alter the mechanical response of the…
We derive Griffith functionals in the framework of linearized elasticity from nonlinear and frame indifferent energies in brittle fracture via Gamma-convergence. The convergence is given in terms of rescaled displacement fields measuring…
We study the nucleation and development of crack patterns in thin composite fibers under tension in this work. A fiber comprises an elastic core and an outer layer of a weaker brittle material. In recent tensile experiments on such…
We analyse a problem of two-dimensional linearised elasticity for a two-component periodic composite, where one of the components consists of disjoint soft inclusions embedded in a rigid framework. We consider the case when the contrast…
The free energy of inserting a protein into a membrane is determined by considering the variation in the spectrum of thermal fluctuations in response to the presence of a rigid inclusion. Both numerically and through a simple analytical…
The modelling of heterogeneous and architected materials poses a significant challenge, demanding advanced homogenisation techniques. However, the complexity of this task can be considerably simplified through the application of micropolar…
We investigate the effective elastic properties of periodic dilute two-phase composites consisting of an homogeneous isotropic matrix and a periodic array of rigid inclusions. We assume the rigid inclusion in a unit cell is a simply…
The statistical mechanics of flexible two-dimensional surfaces (membranes) appears in a wide variety of physical settings. In this talk we discuss the simplest case of fixed-connectivity surfaces. We first review the current theoretical…
We introduce a class of models based on near crack tip degradation of materials that can account for fracture growth under cyclic loads below the Griffith threshold. We incorporate the gradual degradation due to a cyclic load through a flow…
We report detailed theoretical investigations of the micro-mechanics and bulk elastic properties of composites consisting of randomly distributed stiff fibers embedded in an elastic matrix in two and three dimensions. Recent experiments…
When systems that can undergo phase separation between two coexisting phases in the bulk are confined in thin film geometry between parallel walls, the phase behavior can be profoundly modified. These phenomena shall be described and…
Statistics and thermally activated dynamics of crack nucleation and propagation in a two-dimensional heterogeneous material containing quenched randomly distributed defects are studied theoretically. Using the generalized Griffith criterion…