Related papers: Soft, slender and active structures in fluids: emb…
Soft particles display highly versatile properties with respect to hard colloids, even more so at fluid-fluid interfaces. In particular, microgels, consisting of a cross-linked polymer network, are able to deform and flatten upon adsorption…
In this paper, we propose a linear and monolithic finite element method for the approximation of an incompressible viscous fluid interacting with an elastic and deforming plate. We use the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) approach that…
We present a hybrid particle/grid approach for simulating incompressible fluids on collocated velocity grids. We interchangeably use particle and grid representations of transported quantities to balance efficiency and accuracy. A novel…
Vertebrate animals benefit from a combination of rigidity for structural support and softness for adaptation. Similarly, integrating rigidity and softness can enhance the versatility of soft robotics. However, the challenges associated with…
In this study we present a kinematic approach to modeling needle insertion into soft tissues. The kinematic approach allows the presentation of the problem as Dirichlet-type (i.e. driven by enforced motion of boundaries) and therefore…
We study the fully-coupled dynamics between a fully-developed turbulent flow and an ensemble of immersed flexible fibers. We vary the concentration of the suspension, the mechanical properties and the length of the fibers in a vast…
Designing soft robots poses considerable challenges: automated design approaches may be particularly appealing in this field, as they promise to optimize complex multi-material machines with very little or no human intervention.…
We explore the locomotion of soft robots in granular medium (GM) resulting from the elastic deformation of slender rods. A low-cost, rapidly fabricable robot inspired by the physiological structure of bacteria is presented. It consists of a…
In spite of recent progress, soft robotics still suffers from a lack of unified modeling framework. Nowadays, the most adopted model for the design and control of soft robots is the piece-wise constant curvature model, with its consolidated…
Real-time simulation of elastic structures is essential in many applications, from computer-guided surgical interventions to interactive design in mechanical engineering. The Finite Element Method is often used as the numerical method of…
The Immersed Boundary (IB) method is a widely-used numerical methodology for the simulation of fluid-structure interaction problems. The IB method utilizes an Eulerian discretization for the fluid equations of motion while maintaining a…
We examine the problem of snake-like locomotion by studying a system consisting of a planar inextensible elastic rod that is able to control its spontaneous curvature. Using a Cosserat model we derive, through variational principles, the…
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…
Soft actuators offer compliant and safe interaction with an unstructured environment compared to their rigid counterparts. However, control of these systems is often challenging because they are inherently under-actuated, have infinite…
A new computational method is presented to resolve hydrodynamic interactions acting on solid particles immersed in incompressible host fluids. In this method, boundaries between solid particles and host fluids are replaced with a continuous…
Soft robots achieve functionality through tight coupling among geometry, material composition, and actuation. As a result, effective design optimization requires these three aspects to be considered jointly rather than in isolation. This…
A rigid-plastic Cosserat model for slow frictional flow of granular materials, proposed by us in an earlier paper, has been used to analyze plane and cylindrical Couette flow. In this model, the hydrodynamic fields of a classical continuum…
We present a fully-integrated lattice Boltzmann (LB) method for fluid--structure interaction (FSI) simulations that efficiently models deformable solids in complex suspensions and active systems. Our Eulerian method (LBRMT) couples…
Vortices are swirling regions of fluid that structure motion in gases and liquids across a wide range of scales, from laboratory-scale experiments to vast atmospheric currents. They play a key role in mixing, transport, and energy transfer,…
Porous and heterogeneous materials are found in many applications from composites, membranes, chemical reactors, and other engineered materials to biological matter and natural subsurface structures. In this work we propose an integrated…