Related papers: Tensegrity-Inspired Polymer Films: Progressive Ben…

Wrinkling patterns at the metallized surface of thin polymer films are shown to be sensitive to the sticky or slippery character of the polymer/substrate interface (titanium coating, polystyrene film and coated silicon substrate). Selective…

The bending rigidity $k_c$ of bilayer vesicles self-assembled from amphiphilic diblock copolymers has been measured using single and dual-micropipet techniques. These copolymers are nearly a factor of 5 greater in hydrophobic membrane…

Tissues commonly consist of cells embedded within a fibrous biopolymer network. Whereas cell-free reconstituted biopolymer networks typically soften under applied uniaxial compression, various tissues, including liver, brain, and fat, have…

Most, but not all, liquid crystals tend to align when subject to shear flow, while most nematic polymeric liquid crystals undergo a tumbling instability, where the director rotate with the flow. The reasons of this instability remain…

We consider solutions where the surface tension of the solvent is smaller than the surface tension of the polymer. In an evaporating film, a plume of solvent rich fluid, then induces a local depression in surface tension, and the surface…

Variable stiffness is a key capability in biological and robotic systems, enabling adaptive interaction across tasks and environments. Mechanical metamaterials offer an alternative to conventional mechatronic solutions by encoding stiffness…

The need for structuring on micrometer scales is abundant, for example, in view of phononic applications. We here outline a novel approach based on the phenomenon of active turbulence on the mesoscale. As we demonstrate, a shear-thickening…

The study of the dewetting of very thin polymer films has recently revealed many unexpected features (e.g. unusual rim morphologies and front velocities) which have been the focus of several theoretical models. Surprisingly, the most…

We present a theory for the elasticity of cross-linked stiff polymer networks. Stiff polymers, unlike their flexible counterparts, are highly anisotropic elastic objects. Similar to mechanical beams stiff polymers easily deform in bending,…

A novel mathematical model for fiber-reinforced materials is proposed. It is based on a 1-dimensional beam model for the thin fiber structures, a flexible and general 3-dimensional elasticity model for the matrix and an overlapping domain…

The non-equilibrium structural and dynamical properties of a flexible polymer tethered to a reflecting wall and subject to oscillatory linear flow are studied by numerical simulations. Polymer is confined in two dimensions and is modeled as…

We analyze plane strain cold rolling processes, at large strains but slow strain rates, by finite element modeling. At low temperatures, slow strain rates, and moderate thickness reductions during rolling (at which Bauschinger effect can be…

Equilibration of polymer melts containing highly entangled long polymer chains in confinement or with free surfaces is a challenge for computer simulations. We approach this problem by first studying polymer melts based on the soft-sphere…

When a dilute polymer solution experiences capillary thinning, it forms an almost uniformly cylindrical thread, which we study experimentally. In the last stages of thinning, when polymers have become fully stretched, the filament becomes…

The dewetting dynamics of ultrathin polymer films, e.g. in the model system of polystyrene on a polydimethylsiloxane-covered substrate, exhibits interesting behavior like a fast decay of the dewetting velocity and a maximum in the width of…

Using extensive molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the slowing down of dynamics in a 3D system of ring polymers by varying the ambient pressure and the stiffness of the rings. Our study demonstrates that the stiffness of the…

Through extensive Monte Carlo simulations, we systematically study the effect of chain stiffness on the packing ability of linear polymers composed of hard spheres in extremely confined monolayers, corresponding effectively to 2D films.…

The successful commercialization of flexible spintronic devices requires a complete understanding of the impact of external strain on the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of a system. The impact of bending-induced strain on…

The weak properties in the thickness of the laminates in terms of rigidity, fatigue and impact resistance involve delamination sensitivity for thick structures. This issue has led to the development of three-dimensional (3D) preforms with…

Both animal and plant tissue exhibit a nonlinear rheological phenomenon known as compression stiffening, or an increase in moduli with increasing uniaxial compressive strain. Does such a phenomenon exist in single cells, which are the…