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Biological cells in soft materials can be modeled as anisotropic force contraction dipoles. The corresponding elastic interaction potentials are long-ranged ($\sim 1/r^3$ with distance $r$) and depend sensitively on elastic constants,…
One possibility to adjust material properties to a specific need is to embed units of one substance into a matrix of another substance. Even materials that are readily tunable during operation can be generated in this way. In (visco)elastic…
We study the lubrication of fluid-immersed soft interfaces and show that elastic deformation couples tangential and normal forces and thus generates lift. We consider materials that deform easily, due to either geometry (e.g. a shell) or…
This paper presents the derivation of the homogenized equations that describe the macroscopic mechanical response of elastomers filled with liquid inclusions in the setting of small quasistatic deformations. The derivation is carried out…
Hydrogen bonding plays a crucial role in biology and technology, yet it remains poorly understood and quantified despite its fundamental importance. Traditional models, which describe hydrogen bonds as electrostatic interactions between…
Light weight and mechanically robust cellular polymer nanofilms provide materials solutions to many cutting-edge technologies, such as high-flux membrane filtration, ultrathin flexible energy storage, and skin-conformable devices. However,…
Soft materials such as rubber and hydrogels are commonly used in industry for their excellent hyperelastic behaviour. There are various types of constitutive models for soft materials, and phenomenological models are very popular for finite…
Soft slender structures are ubiquitous in natural and artificial systems and can be observed at scales that range from the nanometric to the kilometric, from polymers to space tethers. We present a practical numerical approach to simulate…
Chemical crosslinking of collagen is a general strategy to reproduce macroscale tissue properties in physiological environment. However, simultaneous control of protein conformation, material properties and biofunctionality is highly…
Helices are the quintessential geometric motif of the microscale, from alpha-helices in proteins to double helices in DNA. Assembly of the helical geometry of biopolymers is a foundational step in a hierarchy of structure that eventually…
We demonstrate facile optical manipulation of shape of birefringent colloidal microparticles made from liquid crystal elastomers. Using soft lithography and polymerization, we fabricate elastomeric microcylinders with weakly undulating…
Nematic elastomers are a particular class of liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) that exhibit both liquid-crystalline order and rubber (entropic) elasticity. This combination makes them stimuli-responsive soft materials with a number of…
Nature has exhibited numerous soft-interactive botanical or zoological systems with self-adaptivenss or reconfigurable shape, however, artificial micro/nano materials of same merit are formidable due to material/structural limitations,…
We investigate the hydrodynamic stability and the formation of patterns in a continuum model of epithelial layers, able to account for the interplay between mechanical activity, lateral adhesion and the $6-$fold orientational order…
The plasticity of amorphous solids undergoing shear is characterized by quasi-localized rearrangements of particles. While many models of plasticity exist, the precise relationship between plastic dynamics and the structure of a particle's…
Cells offer numerous inspiring examples where proteins and membranes combine to form complex structures that are key to intracellular compartmentalization, cargo transport, and specialization of cell morphology. Despite this wealth of…
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…
Heavy plastic shear deformation at relatively low homologous temperatures is called high-pressure torsion (HPT) deformation, which is one method of severe plastic deformation (SPD). The aim of the paper is to give an overview of a new…
There is a growing interest in producing materials with mechanical behaviours similar to those of internal organs. An artificial tissue may be expected to experience several types of compressive and shear deformation in the course of normal…
Healthy articular cartilage has excellent lubricating properties, with friction coefficients reaching extremely low values at physiological pressures. Such high-performing lubricating layer in joints is attributed to the surface hydration…