Related papers: Actuation mechanisms in twisted and coiled polymer…
Due to the increasing number of industrial applications of electro-active polymers (EAPs), there is a growing need for electromechanical models which accurately capture their behavior. To this end, we compare the predicted behavior of EAPs…
Liquid crystal elastomers contract along their director on heating and recover on cooling, offering great potential as actuators and artificial muscles. If a flat sheet is programmed with a spatially varying director pattern, it will…
Here we report the linear viscoelastic properties of amorphous poly(tetramethylene oxide) (PTMO), which is one of the key components in synthesizing segmented polyurethane (PU) elastomers. The temperature and molecular weight dependent…
In this work, we compare the structural and dynamic behavior of active filaments in two dimensions using tangential and push-pull models, including a variant with passive end monomers. These models serve as valuable frameworks for…
Athermal (i.e. zero-temperature) under-constrained systems are typically floppy, but they can be rigidified by the application of external strain, which is theoretically well understood. Here and in the companion paper, we extend this…
We investigate the Hubbard model on the anisotropic triangular lattice as a suggested effective description of the Mott phase in various triangular organic compounds. Employing the variational cluster approximation and the ladder…
Motor-proteins are responsible for transport inside cells. Harnessing their activity is key towards developing new nano-technologies, or functional biomaterials. Cytoskeleton-like networks, recently tailored in vitro, result from the…
Lipid monolayers have been shown to represent a powerful tool in studying mechanical and thermodynamic properties of lipid membranes as well as their interaction with proteins. Using Einstein's theory of fluctuations we here demonstrate,…
Soft robots are known for their ability to perform tasks with great adaptability, enabled by their distributed, non-uniform stiffness and actuation. Bending is the most fundamental motion for soft robot design, but creating robust, and…
In this paper we introduce a new mathematical model for the active contraction of cardiac muscle, featuring different thermo-electric and nonlinear conductivity properties. The passive hyperelastic response of the tissue is described by an…
This paper presents a comprehensive computational framework for investigating thermo-elastic fracture in transversely isotropic materials, where classical linear elasticity fails to predict physically realistic behavior near stress…
Soft pneumatic actuators (SPA) made from elastomeric materials can provide large strain and large force. The behavior of locally strain-restricted hyperelastic materials under inflation has been investigated thoroughly for shape…
The pyroresistive response of conductive polymer composites (CPCs) has attracted much interest because of its potential applications in many electronic devices requiring a significant responsiveness to changes in external physical…
Active matter agents consume internal energy or extract energy from the environment for locomotion and force generation. Already rather generic models, such as ensembles of active Brownian particles, exhibit phenomena, which are absent at…
A general approach to simulate the mechanical behavior of textile materials by taking into account all their constitutive elementary fibers and contacts between them is presented in this paper. A finite element code, based on an implicit…
The actin cytoskeleton is an active semi-flexible polymer network whose non-equilibrium properties coordinate both stable and contractile behaviors to maintain or change cell shape. While myosin motors drive the actin cytoskeleton…
The wrapping equilibria of one and two adsorbing cylinders are studied along a semi-flexible filament (polymer) due to the interplay between elastic rigidity and short-range adhesive energy between the cylinder and the filament. We show…
This paper presents a novel actuator system combining a twisted string actuator (TSA) with a winch mechanism. Relative to traditional hydraulic and pneumatic systems in robotics, TSAs are compact and lightweight but face limitations in…
The use of integrated MicroElectroMechanical systems (MEMS) is recently spread thanks to their improved sensitivity, accuracy and reliability. Accurate preliminary computations born from the need of high precision in the manufacturing…
The role of active stress on the conformational dynamics of a polymer has drawn significant interest due to its potential applications in understanding the energy landscape of protein structures, buckling of biopolymers, genomic spatial…