Related papers: Evolution of Adaptive Force Chains in Reconfigurab…
We introduce a variational approximation to the microscopic dynamics of rare conformational transitions of macromolecules. Within this framework it is possible to simulate on a small computer cluster reactions as complex as protein folding,…
Granular metamaterials are a promising choice for the realization of mechanical computing devices. As preliminary evidence of this, we demonstrate here how to embed Boolean logic gates (AND and XOR) into a granular metamaterial by evolving…
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…
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…
Granular systems are not always homogeneous and can be composed of grains with very different mechanical properties. To improve our understanding of the behavior of real granular systems, in this experimental study, we compress 2D…
Granular materials transmit stress via a network of force chains. Despite the importance of these chains to characterizing the stress state and dynamics of the system, there is no common framework for quantifying their their properties.…
Rigid particles pack into structures, such as sand dunes on the beach, whose overall stability is determined by the average number of contacts between particles. However, when packing spatially extended objects with flexible shapes,…
Force-distance curve experiments are commonly performed in Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to obtain the viscoelastic characteristics of materials, such as the storage and loss moduli or compliances. The classic methods used to obtain these…
Our understanding of the elasticity and rheology of disordered materials, such as granular piles, foams, emulsions or dense suspensions relies on improving experimental tools to characterize their behaviour at the particle scale. While 2D…
We review continuum elastic models for the transmission of both external forces and internal active cellular forces in biopolymer gels, and relate them to recent experiments. Rather than being exhaustive, we focus on continuum elastic…
The thermal and mechanical behaviors of powders are important for various additive manufacturing technologies. For powder bed fusion, capturing the temperature profile and the packing structure of the powders prior to melting is challenging…
Multivalent particles bind to targets via many independent ligand-receptor bonding interactions. This microscopic design spans length scales in both synthetic and biological systems. Classic examples include interactions between cells,…
Model chains are studied via Monte Carlo simulations which are deposited with a fixed flux on a substrate. They may represent, e.g., stiff lipophilic chains with an head group and tail groups mimicking the alkyl chain. After some subsequent…
We present design and implementation of a chain of particles that can be programmed to fold the chain into a given curve. The particles guide an external force to fold, therefore the particles are simple and amenable for miniaturization. A…
When dense granular systems are exposed to external forcing, they evolve on the time scale that is typically related to the externally imposed one (shear or compression rate, for example). This evolution could be characterized by observing…
Mechanical metamaterials are periodic lattice structures with complex unit cell architectures that can achieve extraordinary mechanical properties beyond the capability of bulk materials. A new class of metamaterials is proposed, whose…
We have carried out a quantitative analysis of the chain packing in polymeric melts using molecular dynamics simulations. The analysis involves constructing Voronoi tessellations in the equilibrated configurations of the polymeric melts. In…
Modeling membrane interactions with arbitrarily shaped colloidal particles, such as environmental micro- and nanoplastics, at the cell scale remains particularly challenging, owing to the complexity of particle geometries and the need to…
In active matter systems, self-propelled particles can self-organize to undergo collective motion, leading to persistent dynamical behavior out of equilibrium. In cells, cytoskeletal filaments and motor proteins self-organize into complex…
In nature, granular materials fail in abrupt avalanches, earthquakes, and other hazardous events, and also creep over time. Proposed failure mechanisms for these systems are broadly framed as friction-limited. However, mechanical…