Related papers: Configurational Forces in Penetration Processes
We study, numerically and analytically, the forced transport of deformable containers through a narrow constriction. Our central aim is to quantify the competition between the constriction geometry and the active forcing, regulating whether…
Component substitution has numerous practical applications and constitutes an active research topic. This paper proposes to enrich an existing component-based framework--a model with dynamic reconfigurations making the system evolve--with a…
Gaining access to the cell interior is fundamental for many applications, such as electrical recording, drug and biomolecular delivery. A very promising technique consists of culturing cells on nano/micro pillars. The tight adhesion and…
In material science, models are derived to predict emergent material properties (e.g. elasticity, strength, conductivity) and their relations to processing conditions. A major drawback is the calibration of model parameters that depend on…
We use numerical simulation to investigate the effect an intruder's shape has on the drag and lift forces that it experiences while moving through a granular medium composed of polydisperse disks of mean diameter d. The intruder velocity,v,…
This work analyzes the viscous flow and elastic deformation created by the forced axial motion of a rigid cylinder within an elastic liquid-filled tube. The examined configuration is relevant to various minimally invasive medical procedures…
The main goal of this work is to clarify and quantify, by means of mathematical analysis, the role of structural viscoelasticity in the biomechanical response of deformable porous media with incompressible constituents to sudden changes in…
The behaviour and fate of tissue cells is controlled by the rigidity and geometry of their adhesive environment, possibly through forces localized to sites of adhesion. We introduce a mechanical model that predicts cellular force…
Bone adapts in response to its mechanical environment. This evolution of bone density is one of the most important mechanisms for developing fracture resistance. A finite element framework for simulating bone adaptation, commonly called…
The mechanics of crawling cells on a substrate is investigated by using a minimal model that satisfies the force-free condition. A cell is described by two subcellular elements connected by a linear actuator that changes the length of the…
We derive the expressions for configurational forces in Kohn-Sham density functional theory, which correspond to the generalized variational force computed as the derivative of the Kohn-Sham energy functional with respect to the position of…
A coupling of structural and thermodynamic fluctuations in the course of various-type insertion processes is investigated within a combination of Gibbsian statistics and the information theory approach. It is shown that the coupling makes…
We study numerically how multiple deformable capsules squeeze into a constriction. This situation is largely encountered in microfluidic chips designed to manipulate living cells, which are soft entities. We use fully three-dimensional…
Contact can be conceptualized as a set of constraints imposed on two bodies that are interacting with one another in some way. The nature of a contact, whether a point, line, or surface, dictates how these bodies are able to move with…
We consider the problem of inserting a stiff chain into a colloidal suspension of particles that interact with it through excluded volume forces. The free energy of insertion is associated with the work of creating a cavity devoid of…
Can active forces be exploited to drive the consistent collapse of an active polymer into a folded structure? In this paper we introduce and perform numerical simulations of a simple model of active colloidal folders, and show that a…
This paper is devoted to the variational derivation of reduced models for elastic membranes with fracture under constraints on the determinant of the deformation gradient. We consider two physically relevant settings: the…
The protein folding problem has attracted an increasing attention from physicists. The problem has a flavor of statistical mechanics, but possesses the most common feature of most biological problems -- the profound effects of evolution. I…
Cell layers eliminate unwanted cells through the extrusion process, which underlines healthy versus flawed tissue behaviors. Although several biochemical pathways have been identified, the underlying mechanical basis including the forces…
Depletion forces and macromolecular crowding govern the structure and function of biopolymers in biological cells and the properties of polymer nanocomposite materials. To isolate and analyze the influence of polymer shape fluctuations and…