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Through modelling and simulations we show that material instabilities play a dominant role in the mechanical behavior of the fibrous collagen Extracellular Matrix (ECM), as observed when the ECM is deformed by contractile biological cells.…
Elastic metamaterials are often designed for a single permanent function. We explore the possibility of altering a material's function repeatedly through a self-organization, "training" process, controlled by applied strains. We show that…
Biofilms are bacterial aggregates encased in a self-produced polymeric matrix which attach to moist surfaces and are extremely resistant to chemicals and antibiotics. Recent experiments show that their structure is defined by the interplay…
Shape-morphing networks of mesoscale filaments are a common hierarchical feature in biology and hold significant potential for a range of technological applications, from micro-muscles to shape-morphing optical devices. Here, we demonstrate…
A large family of periodic planar non-linear bimode metamaterials are constructed from rigid bars and pivots. They are affine materials in the sense that their macroscopic deformations are only affine deformations: at large distances any…
The origin of rigidity in disordered materials is an outstanding open problem in statistical physics. Previously, a class of 2D cellular models has been shown to undergo a rigidity transition controlled by a mechanical parameter that…
Capturing and predicting the effective mechanical properties of highly porous cellular media still represents a significant challenge for the research community, due to their complex structural interdependencies and known size effects.…
Deployable structures, essential across various engineering applications ranging from umbrellas to satellites, are evolving to include soft, morphable designs where geometry drives transformation. However, a major challenge for soft…
A disordered material that cannot relax to equilibrium, such as an amorphous or glassy solid, responds to deformation in a way that depends on its past. In experiments we train a 2D athermal amorphous solid with oscillatory shear, and show…
The role of porous structure and glass density in response to compressive deformation of amorphous materials is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. The disordered, porous structures were prepared by quenching a high-temperature…
Tuning of active prestress e.g. through activity of molecular motors constitutes a powerful cellular tool to adjust cellular stiffness through nonlinear material properties. Understanding this tool is an important prerequisite for our…
Bone is a biomaterial undergoing continuous renewal. The renewal process is known as bone remodelling and is operated by bone-resorbing cells (osteoclasts) and bone-forming cells (osteoblasts). Both biochemical and biomechanical regulatory…
Dynamic shape-morphing soft materials systems are ubiquitous in living organisms; they are also of rapidly increasing relevance to emerging technologies in soft machines, flexible electronics, and smart medicines. Soft matter equipped with…
In this paper, a novel kinematic framework for fiber-reinforced composite materials is presented. For this purpose, we use the multiple natural configurations in conjunction with the multi-continuum theory of Bedford and Stern~(1972).…
During development and under normal physiological conditions, biological tissues are continuously subjected to substantial mechanical stresses. In response to large deformations cells in a tissue must undergo multicellular rearrangements in…
Networks of elastic beams can deform either by stretching or bending of their members. The primary mode of deformation (bending or stretching) crucially depends on the specific details of the network architecture. In order to shed light on…
We show that memory can be encoded in a model amorphous solid subjected to athermal oscillatory shear deformations, and in an analogous spin model with disordered interactions, sharing the feature of a deformable energy landscape. When…
Fiber reinforcement is a crucial attribute of soft bodied muscular hydrostats that have the ability to undergo large deformations and maintain their posture. Helically wound fibers around the cylindrical worm body help control the tube…
Deformation heterogeneities within microstructures of polycrystalline shape memory alloys (SMAs) during superelastic stressing are studied using both experiments and simulations. In situ X-ray diffraction, specifically the far-field high…
We propose a theoretical framework for dealing with a transient polymer network undergoing small deformations, based on the rate of breaking and re-forming of network crosslinks and the evolving elastic reference state. In this framework,…