Related papers: Active buckling of pressurized spherical shells : …
Depending on its geometry, a spherical shell may exist in one of two stable states without the application of any external force: there are two `self-equilibrated' states, one natural and the other inside out (or `everted'). Though this is…
We describe a Monte Carlo procedure which allows sampling of the disjoint configuration spaces associated with crystalline and fluid phases, within a single simulation. The method utilises biased sampling techniques to enhance the…
A buckled sheet offers a reservoir of material that can be unfurled at a later time. For sufficiently thin yet stiff materials, this geometric process has a striking mechanical feature: when the slack runs out, the material locks to further…
Coupled magneto-mechanical wrinkling has appeared in many scenarios of engineering and biology. Hence, soft magneto-active (SMA) plates buckle when subject to critical uniform magnetic field normal to their wide surface. Here, we provide a…
Confinement is a versatile and well-established tool to study the properties of polymers either to understand biological processes or to develop new nano-biomaterials. We investigate the conformations of a semiflexible polymer ring in weak…
We study swelling and structural properties of ionic microgel suspensions within a comprehensive coarse-grained model that combines the polymeric and colloidal natures of microgels as permeable, compressible, charged spheres governed by…
From cell development to space rockets, the mechanical stability of thin shells is crucial across many industrial and natural processes. However, predicting shells' failure properties remains an open challenge, owing to their sensitivity to…
We study the snapping instability of a spherical elastic shell induced by a viscous flow, the umbrella flipping problem when life is at low Reynolds numbers. We combine precision desktop-scale experiments, fluid-structure simulations, shell…
Active turbulence is a paradigmatic and fascinating example of self-organized motion at large scales occurring in active matter. We employ massive hydrodynamic simulations of suspensions of resolved model microswimmers to tackle the…
On microscopic scales, the crystallinity of flexible tethered or cross linked membranes determines their mechanical response. We show that by controlling the type, number and distribution of defects on a spherical elastic shell, it is…
We analyze the non-equilibrium shape fluctuations of giant unilamellar vesicles encapsulating motile bacteria. Owing to bacteria--membrane collisions, we experimentally observe a significant increase in the magnitude of membrane…
The equilibrium structure and dynamics of a single polymer chain in a thermal solvent is by now well-understood in terms of scaling laws. Here we consider a polymer in a bacterial bath, i.e. in a solvent consisting of active particles which…
Wavelet Monte Carlo dynamics simulations are used to study the dynamics of passive particles in the presence of microswimmers, taking account of the often-omitted thermal motion alongside the hydrodynamic flows generated by the swimmers.…
We study the swelling of a flexible linear chain composed of active particles by analytical theory and computer simulation. Three different situations are considered: a free chain, a chain confined to an external harmonic trap, and a chain…
We study the effect of fluctuations in opening angle of bent-core molecules on stability of the nematic phases. The molecules are built out of two Gay-Berne centers of $\kappa = 4$, $\kappa ' = 5$, $\mu = 1$ and $\nu = 2$, each…
Snap-buckling is a rapid shape transition in slender structures, appearing as a fundamental switching mechanism of natural and man-made systems. Boundary conditions of structures are crucial to predict and control their snap-buckling…
In a recent feature article in this journal, co-authored by Gert van der Heijden, I described the static-dynamic analogy and its role in understanding the localized post-buckling of shell-like structures, looking exclusively at integrable…
Monte Carlo simulation, experiment and continuum theory are used to examine the anchoring exhibited by a nematic liquid crystal at a patterned substrate comprising a periodic array of rectangles that, respectively, promote vertical and…
A slender object undergoing an axial compression will buckle to alleviate the stress. Typically the morphology of the deformed object depends on the bending stiffness for solids, or the viscoelastic properties for liquid threads. We study a…
With Monte Carlo simulations, we investigate the relaxation dynamics with a domain wall for magnetic systems at the critical temperature. The dynamic scaling behavior is carefully analyzed, and a dynamic roughening process is observed. For…