Related papers: Network evolution controlling strain-induced damag…
Entangled networks of stiff biopolymers exhibit complex dynamic response, emerging from the topological constraints that neighboring filaments impose upon each other. We propose a class of reference models for entanglement dynamics of stiff…
The computational method of discrete dislocation dynamics (DDD), used as a coarse-grained model of true atomistic dynamics of lattice dislocations, has become of powerful tool to study metal plasticity arising from the collective behavior…
We propose a protocol to model accurately the electromechanical behavior of dielectric elastomer membranes using experimental data of stress-stretch and voltage-stretch tests. We show how the relationship between electric displacement and…
Single-filament tracing has been a valuable tool to directly determine geometrical and mechanical properties of entangled polymer networks. However, systematically verifying how the stiffness of the tracer filament or its molecular…
We have used kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to study the kinetics of unfolding of cross-linked polymer chains under mechanical loading. As the ends of a chain are pulled apart, the force transmitted by each crosslink increases until it…
The aim of this work is to develop a neural network for modelling incompressible hyperelastic behaviour with isotropic damage, the so-called Mullins effect. This is obtained through the use of feed-forward neural networks with special…
We extend the laminate based framework of direct Deep Material Networks (DMNs) to treat suspensions of rigid fibers in a non-Newtonian solvent. To do so, we derive two-phase homogenization blocks that are capable of treating incompressible…
Statistical mechanics is an important tool for understanding polymer electroelasticity because the elasticity of polymers is primarily due to entropy. However, a common approach for the statistical mechanics of polymer chains, the Gaussian…
The influence of structural constraints on the relaxation dynamics of three polyurea networks with varying degree of crosslinking, has been studied by means of a thorough analysis of broadband dielectric spectroscopy measurements. Two…
Despite the huge interest in network resilience to stress, most of the studies have concentrated on internal stress damaging network structure (e.g., node removals). Here we study how networks respond to environmental stress deteriorating…
Polymers in a turbulent flow are subject to intense strain, which can cause their scission and thereby limit the experimental study and application of phenomena such as turbulent drag reduction and elastic turbulence. In this paper, we…
We introduce a mathematical model for the mechanical behaviour of the eukaryotic cell cytoskeleton. This discrete model involves a regular array of pre-stressed protein filaments that exhibit resistance to enthalpic stretching, joined at…
Triply-periodic networks (TPNs), like the well-known gyroid and diamond network phases, abound in soft matter assemblies, from block copolymers (BCPs), lyotropic liquid crystals and surfactants to functional architectures in biology. While…
We present the experimental studies of highly strained soft bidisperse granular systems made of hyperelastic and plastic particles. We explore the behavior of granular matter deep in the jammed state from local field measurement from the…
Synthetic and biological living polymers are self-assembling chains whose chain length distributions (CLDs) are dynamic. We show these dynamics are ultrasensitive: even a small perturbation (e.g. temperature jump) non-linearly distorts the…
Active processes in living systems generate nonequilibrium forces that deform embedded passive macromolecules. To understand how such dynamics influence polymer conformation, we study a flexible passive chain in an active nematic fluid.…
Polymer gels are comprised of a three-dimensional, cross-linked network that can typically withstand the mechanical deformation associated with both swelling and de-swelling. Thus, gels can be designed with smart behaviors that require both…
Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the static and dynamic properties of spherical nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in a disordered and polydisperse polymer network. Purely repulsive (RNP) as well as weakly attractive (ANP) polymer-NP…
Recent advances in designing meta-materials have demonstrated that global mechanical properties of disordered spring networks can be tuned by selectively modifying only a small subset of bonds. Here, using a computationally-efficient…
Nonlinear metamaterials with tailored mechanical properties have applications in engineering, medicine, robotics, and beyond. While modeling their macromechanical behavior is challenging in itself, finding structure parameters that lead to…