Related papers: Vibrations and waves in soft dielectric elastomer …
We propose an approach to measure surface elastic constants of soft solids. Generally, this requires one to probe interfacial mechanics at around the elastocapillary length scale, which is typically microscopic. Deformations of microscopic…
This paper concerns the rigorous periodic homogenization for a weakly coupled electroelastic system of a nonlinear electrostatic equation with an elastic equation enriched with electrostriction. Such coupling is employed to describe…
The evolution of the properties of short-scale electrostatic waves across collisionless shocks remains an open question. We use a method based on the interferometry of the electric field measured aboard the magnetospheric multiscale…
Flexible mechanical structures can undergo large deformations under small loads, enabling large, complex, and nonlinear wave responses under finite-frequency driving. Here, we study a dynamically driven canonical flexible mechanical…
We show that minimal-surface non-Euclidean elastic plates share the same low-energy effective theory as Haldane's dimerized quantum spin chain. As a result, such elastic plates support fractional excitations, which take the form of…
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,…
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…
Soft colloids allow to explore high density states well beyond random close packing. An important open question is whether softness controls the dynamics under these dense conditions. While experimental works reported conflicting results,…
Electroactive polymers such as dielectric elastomers (DEs) have attracted significant attention in recent years. Computational techniques to solve the coupled electromechanical system of equations for this class of materials have…
We formulate a general theory of the dielectric response of a lattice with a structural transition and a polarization instability due to a soft-optic mode coupled to low energy electronic excitations by the electromagnetic fields. the…
Structures involving solid particles of nanometric dimensions play an increasingly important role in material sciences. These structures are often characterized through the vibrational properties of their constituent particles, which can be…
Soft actuators offer a safe, adaptable approach to tasks like gentle grasping and dexterous manipulation. Creating accurate models to control such systems however is challenging due to the complex physics of deformable materials. Accurate…
We study the propagation of Lamb waves in soft dielectric plates subject to mechanical and electrical loadings. We find explicit expressions for the dispersion equations in the cases of neo-Hookean and Gent dielectrics. We elucidate the…
The pinning of an inhomogeneous elastic medium by a disordered substrate is studied analytically and numerically. The static and dynamic properties of a $D$-dimensional system are shown to be equivalent to those of the well known problem of…
We consider planar liquid crystal elastomers: two dimensional objects made of anisotropic responsive materials, that upon activation remain flat however change their planar shape. We derive a closed form, analytical solution based on the…
Periodic structures are a type of metamaterial in which the physical properties depend not only on the details of the unit cell but also on how unit cells are arranged and interact with each other. In conventional engineering structures,…
Soft actuators allow to transform external stimuli to mechanical deformations. Because of their deformational response to external magnetic fields, magnetic gels and elastomers represent ideal candidates for such tasks. Mostly, linear…
This paper discusses the elastic behavior of a very long crosslinked polyelectrolyte chain (Debye-H\"uckel chain), which is weakly charged. Therefore the response of the crosslinked chain (network) on an external constant force $f$ acting…
An idealized electrostatically actuated microelectromechanical system (MEMS) involving an elastic plate with a heterogeneous dielectric material is considered. Starting from the electrostatic and mechanical energies, the governing evolution…
Softer means stickier for solid adhesives, because material compliance facilitates close contact between non-conformal surfaces. Recent discoveries have revealed that soft materials can exhibit a rich array of new physics arising from…