Related papers: Egg-speriments: Stretch, crack, and spin
A theoretical and experimental study of the spin-over mode induced by the elliptical instability of a flow contained in a slightly deformed rotating spherical shell is presented. This geometrical configuration mimics the liquid rotating…
Granular packings of non-convex or elongated particles can form free-standing structures like walls or arches. For some particle shapes, such as staples, the rigidity arises from interlocking of pairs of particles, but the origins of…
The macroscopic properties of polymeric fluids are inherited from the material properties of the fibers embedded in the solvent. The behavior of such passive fibers in flow has been of interest in a wide range of systems, including cellular…
The localized loading of an elastic sheet floating on a liquid bath occurs at scales from a frog sitting on a lily pad to a volcano supported by the Earth's tectonic plates. The load is supported by a combination of the stresses within the…
Many soft materials, including foams, dense emulsions, micro gel bead suspensions, star polymers, dense packing of surfactant onion micelles, and textured morphologies of liquid crystals, share the basic "glassy" features of structural…
Cutting soft materials is a complex process governed by the interplay of bulk large deformation, interfacial soft fracture, and contact forces with the cutting tool. Existing experimental characterizations and numerical models often fail to…
The effects of a driven fast-oscillating spinneret on the bending instability of electrified jets, leading to the formation of spiral structures in electrospinning experiments with charged polymers, are explored by means of extensive…
Crumpling of a thin film leads to a unique stiff yet lightweight structure. The stiffness has been attributed to a complex interplay between four basic elements - smooth bends, sharp folds, localized points (developable cones), and…
Indentation tests are classical tools to determine material properties. For biological samples such as cysts of cells, however, the observed force-displacement relation cannot be expected to follow predictions for simple materials. Here, by…
To produce sounds, we adjust the tension of our vocal folds to shape their properties and control the pitch. This efficient mechanism offers inspiration for designing reconfigurable materials and adaptable soft robots. However,…
Our brains are able to exploit coarse physical models of fluids to solve everyday manipulation tasks. There has been considerable interest in developing such a capability in robots so that they can autonomously manipulate fluids adapting to…
We combine experiments and simulations to study the link between criticality and gelation in sticky spheres. We employ confocal microscopy to image colloid-polymer mixtures, and Monte Carlo simulations of the square-well (SW) potential as a…
A thin-walled tube, e.g., a drinking straw, manifests an instability when bent by localizing the curvature change in a small region. This instability has been extensively studied since the seminal work of Brazier nearly a century ago.…
Despite the apparent ubiquity and variety of quantum spin liquids in theory, experimental confirmation of spin liquids remains to be a huge challenge. Motivated by the recent surge of evidences for spin liquids in a series of candidate…
The elastic coupling between plastic events is generally invoked to interpret plastic properties and failure of amorphous soft glassy materials. We report an experiment where the emergence of a self-organized plastic flow is observed well…
The buckling of elastic bodies is a common phenomenon in the mechanics of solids. Wrinkling of membranes can often be interpreted as buckling under constraints that prohibit large amplitude deformation. We present a combination of analytic…
Elastomers filled with liquid inclusions -- as opposed to conventional solid fillers -- are a recent trend in the soft matter community because of their unique range of mechanical and physical properties. Such properties stem, in part, from…
A bonded particle model is used to explore how variations in the material properties of brittle, isotropic solids affect critical behavior in fragmentation. To control material properties, a new model is proposed which includes breakable…
The ideal strength is crucial for predicting material behavior under extreme conditions, which can provide insights into material limits, guide design and engineer for enhanced performance and durability. In this work, we present a method…
Like a cr\^epe resting on a plate, a thin elastic sheet can fold smoothly under its own weight, forming reversible shapes without creases or imposed hinges. Such soft folds arise from a balance between elastic bending and gravity, yet their…