Related papers: Hanging cables and spider threads
A classical two-stranded rope can be made by twisting two identical strands together under strain. Despite being conceptually simple, the contact-equations for helically twisted identical strands have only been solved within the last 20…
A folded chain, with one end fixed at the ceiling and the other end released from the same elevation, is commonly modeled as an energy-conserving system in one-dimension. However, the analytical paradigms in previous literature is…
We consider the rope climber fall problem in two different settings. The simplest formulation of the problem is when the climber falls from a given altitude and is attached to one end of the rope while the other end of the rope is attached…
The cable-trench problem is defined as a linear combination of the shortest path and the minimum spanning tree problem. In particular, the goal is to find a spanning tree that simultaneously minimizes its total length and the total path…
It is shown that a wormlike chain, i.e., a filament with a fixed contour-length S and a bending elasticity kappa, attached to a frame of length L, can be described--at low resolutions--by the same type of elastic free-energy as a tense…
The cable equation is a second order, parabolic, partial differential equation that describes the evolution of voltage in the dendrite of a neuron. Here we look at the various ways in which lambda(space constant/ variable space…
A new formalism is used for a Monte Carlo determination of the elastic constants of a two-dimensional net of fixed connectivity. The net is composed of point-like atoms each of which is tethered to six neighbors by a bond limiting the…
The adhesive behaviour of biological attachment structures such as spider web anchorages is usually studied using single or multiple peeling models involving "tapes", i.e. one-dimensional contacts elements. This is an oversimplification for…
The nonlinear mechanics of a flexible elastic rod constrained at its edges by a pair of sliding sleeves is analyzed. The planar equilibrium configurations of this variable-length elastica are found to have shape defined only by the…
A knotted ribbon is one of physical aspect of a knot. A folded ribbon knot is a depiction of a knot obtained by folding a long and thin rectangular strip to become flat. The ribbonlength of a knot type can be defined as the minimum length…
A general formulation is presented for continuum scaling limits of stochastic spanning trees. A spanning tree is expressed in this limit through a consistent collection of subtrees, which includes a tree for every finite set of endpoints in…
We consider the in-plane motion of elastic strings on tree-like network, observed from the 'leaves'. We investigate the inverse problem of recovering not only the physical properties i.e. the 'optical lengths' of each string, but also the…
What is the longest rope on the unit sphere? Intuition tells us that the answer to this packing problem depends on the rope's thickness. For a countably infinite number of prescribed thickness values we construct and classify all solution…
Knotted ribbons form an important topic in knot theory. They have applications in natural sciences, such as cyclic duplex DNA modeling. A flat knotted ribbon can be obtained by gently pulling a knotted ribbon tight so that it becomes flat…
Marine cables under low tension and torsion on the sea floor can form highly contorted three-dimensional geometries that include loops (e.g. hockles) and tangles. These geometries arise from the conversion of torsional strain energy to…
We study the dynamics of an inclined tensioned, heavy cable traveling with a constant speed in the vertical plane. The cable is modeled as a beam resisting bending and shear. The governing equation for the transverse in-plane vibrations of…
Power cables have complex geometries in order to reduce their ac resistance. Although there are many different cable designs, most have in common that their inner conductors' cross-section is divided into several electrically insulated…
We introduce the problem of finding a spanning tree along with a partition of the tree edges into fewest number of feasible sets, where constraints on the edges define feasibility. The motivation comes from wireless networking, where we…
We consider the elastic energy of a hanging drape -- a thin elastic sheet, pulled down by the force of gravity, with fine-scale folding at the top that achieves approximately uniform confinement. This example of energy-driven pattern…
We investigate by exact optimization the geometrical properties of three-dimensional elastic line systems with point disorder and hard-core repulsion. The line 'forests' become entangled due to increasing line wandering as the system height…