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This paper proposes a methodology for architecting microstructures with extremal stiffness, yield, and buckling strength using topology optimization. The optimized microstructures reveal an interesting transition from simple lattice like…
Spatial ordering of matter elicits exotic properties sometimes absent from a material's constituents. A few highly mineralised natural materials achieve high toughness through delocalised damage, whereas synthetic particulate composites…
Heterogeneous materials, such as rocks and concrete, have a complex dynamics including hysteresis, nonlinear elasticity and viscoelasticity. It is very sensitive to microstructural changes and damage. The goal of this paper is to propose a…
A constitutive model based on the combination of damage mechanics and plasticity is developed to analyse concrete structures subjected to dynamic loading. The aim is to obtain a model, which requires input parameters with clear physical…
Shells, i.e., objects made of a thin layer of material following a surface, are among the most common structures in use. They are highly efficient, in terms of material required to maintain strength, but also prone to deformation and…
The mechanical response of cellular materials with spinodal topologies is numerically and experimentally investigated. Spinodal microstructures are generated by the numerical solution of the Cahn-Hilliard equation. Two different topologies…
Throughout biology, hierarchy is a recurrent theme in the geometry of structures where strength is achieved with minimal use of material. Acting over vast timescales, evolution has brought about beautiful solutions to problems of…
A continuum model of fracture that describes, in principle, the propagation and interaction of arbitrary distributions of cracks and voids with evolving topology without a fracture criterion is developed. It involves a 'law of motion' for…
Active materials are capable of converting free energy into directional motion, giving rise to striking dynamical phenomena. Developing a general understanding of their structure in relation to the underlying non-equilibrium physics would…
The sponge-like biomineralised calcite materials found in echinoderm skeletons are of interest in terms of both structure formation and biological function. Despite their crystalline atomic structure, they exhibit curved interfaces that…
In this paper, we study the preferential stiffness and the crack-tip fields for an elastic porous solid of which material properties are dependent upon the density. Such a description is necessary to describe the failure that can be caused…
A topology optimization problem in a phase field setting is considered to obtain rigid structures, which are resilient to external forces and constructable with additive manufacturing. Hence, large deformations of overhangs due to gravity…
The technique presented here identifies tethered mould designs, optimised for growing cultured tissue with very highly-aligned cells. It is based on a microscopic biophysical model for polarised cellular hydrogels. There is an unmet need…
The mechanical properties of vertebrate bone are largely determined by a process which involves the complex interplay of three different cell types. This process is called {\it bone remodeling}, and occurs asynchronously at multiple sites…
In this paper we develop a lattice-based computational model focused on bone resorption by osteoclasts in a single cortical basic multicellular unit (BMU). Our model takes into account the interaction of osteoclasts with the bone matrix,…
The assembly of banana-shaped rodlike proteins on membranes, and the associated membrane shape transformations, are investigated by analytical theory and coarse-grained simulations. The membrane-mediated interactions between two…
Topology optimization is an important basis for the design of components. Here, the optimal structure is found within a design space subject to boundary conditions. Thereby, the specific material law has a strong impact on the final design.…
Oriented block copolymers exhibit a buckling instability when submitted to a tensile test perpendicular to the lamellae direction. In this paper we study this behavior using a coarse grained molecular dynamics simulation approach. Coarse…
Soft composite solids, comprising discrete inclusions embedded within a compliant matrix, are emerging candidates for engineering synthetic tissues and soft robotic materials. Current strategies for controlling their nonlinear mechanics,…
Failure in brittle materials under dynamic loading conditions is a result of the propagation and coalescence of microcracks. Simulating this mechanism at the continuum level is computationally expensive or, in some cases, intractable. The…