Related papers: Relation between the contact force and local geome…

Motivated by the centering of biological objects in large cells, we study the generic properties of centering forces inside a ball (or a volume of spherical topology) in $n$ dimensions. We consider two scenarios : autonomous centering (in…

Confinement can have a dramatic effect on the behavior of all sorts of particulate systems and it therefore is an important phenomenon in many different areas of physics and technology. Here, we investigate the role played by the softness…

We present an edge-based framework for the study of geometric elastic network models to model mechanical interactions in physical systems. We use a formulation in the edge space, instead of the usual node-centric approach, to characterise…

Elastohydrodynamic lubrication, or simply soft lubrication, refers to the motion of deformable objects near a boundary lubricated by a fluid, and is one of the key physical mechanisms to minimise friction and wear in natural and engineered…

Based on the superposition of incremental frictional surface tractions that, in the case of an incompressible elastic half-space, correspond to a rigid tangential translation of a circular contact domain, the stress and displacement fields…

Surface roughness emerges naturally during mechanical removal of material, fracture, chemical deposition, plastic deformation, indentation, and other processes. Here, we use continuum simulations to show how roughness which is neither…

We theoretically study the conformations of a helical semi-flexible filament confined to a flat surface. This squeezed helix exhibits a variety of unexpected shapes resembling circles, waves or spirals depending on the material parameters.…

The load-area relation of rough surfaces is of great interest in tribology. For elastic-plastic solids with strain hardening, an incremental model is adopted to analyze the contact of rough surfaces, in which the contact is modeled by…

The interplay of geometrical and topological entanglement in semiflexible knotted polymer rings confined inside a spherical cavity is investigated using advanced numerical methods. By using stringent and robust algorithms for locating…

In this article, we present a mathematical model that answers a classical question concerning how much force, which is generally called static friction force, will it require to initiate the motion of a soft solid block such as gel, rubber…

In protein folding the term plasticity refers to the number of alternative folding pathways encountered in response to free energy perturbations such as those induced by mutation. Here we explore the relation between folding plasticity and…

How can dense biological tissue maintain sharp boundaries between coexisting cell populations? We explore this question within a simple vertex model for cells, focusing on the role of topology and tissue surface tension. We show that the…

The problem of characterizing the structure of an elastic network constrained to lie on a frozen curved surface appears in many areas of science and has been addressed by many different approaches, most notably, extending linear elasticity…

We investigate the sliding strength of thin filaments in frictional contact with a translating cylinder, perpendicular to the filaments' axes, in knotted (clove hitch) and unknotted (capstan) configurations. Recent work reported superlinear…

Accurately modeling local surface properties of objects is crucial to many robotic applications, from grasping to material recognition. Surface properties like friction are however difficult to estimate, as visual observation of the object…

It is shown that for monolayer graphene electrons are confined on a perfect two dimensional surface. The implications for the electronic properties of corrugated graphene are discussed in view of a derivation of the constrained relativistic…

Lubrication forces depend to a high degree on elasticity, texture, charge, chemistry, and temperature of the interacting surfaces. Therefore, by appropriately designing surface properties, we may tailor lubrication forces to reduce…

To study the compressional forces exerted by a bundle of living stiff filaments pressing on a surface, akin to the case of an actin bundle in filopodia structures, we have performed particulate Molecular Dynamics simulations of a grafted…

Shells, when confined, can deform in a broad assortment of shapes and patterns, often quite dissimilar to what is produced by their flat counterparts (plates). In this work we discuss the morphological landscape of shells deposited on a…

Polymer entanglements lead to complicated topological constraints and interactions between neighbouring chains in a dense solution or melt. Entanglements can be treated in a mean field approach, within the famous reptation model, since they…