Related papers: A hinge effect that anomalously decreases the stif…
Investigation of inhomogeneities has wide applications in different areas of mechanics including the study of composite materials. Here, we analytically study an arbitrarily-shaped isotropic inhomogeneity embedded in a finite-sized…
We use molecular simulations to study jamming of a crumpled bead-spring model polymer in a finite container and compare to jamming of repulsive spheres. After proper constraint counting, the onset of rigidity is seen to occur isostatically…
This study investigates the influence of fiber spatial distribution on the transverse mechanical properties of unidirectionally reinforced continuous-fiber composites. A Swelling & Random Migration algorithm was employed to generate…
Thick origami structures are considered here as assemblies of polygonal panels hinged to each other along their edges according to a corresponding origami crease pattern. The determination of the internal actions caused by external loads in…
Manipulation of thin sheets by folding and cutting offers opportunity to engineer structures with novel mechanical properties, and to prescribe complex force-displacement relationships via material elasticity in combination with the…
Achieving damage tolerance in composite materials remains a central challenge in materials science. Conventional strategies often rely on filler incorporation or chemical modification, which can limit energy dissipation and constrain…
Mechanical metamaterials -- structures with unusual properties that emerge from their internal architecture -- that are designed to undergo large deformations typically exploit large internal rotations, and therefore, necessitate the…
Filamentous bio-materials such as fibrin or collagen networks exhibit an enormous stiffening of their elastic moduli upon large deformations. This pronounced nonlinear behavior stems from a significant separation between the stiffnesses…
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…
The effects of a driven fast-oscillating spinneret on the bending instability of electrified jets, leading to the formation of spiral structures in electrospinning experiments with charged polymers, are explored by means of extensive…
We report simulation results on melts of entangled linear polymers confined in a free-standing thin film. We study how the geometric constraints imposed by the confinement alter the entanglement state of the system compared to the…
Fibre-reinforced elastomers are lightweight and strong materials that can sustain large deformations. When filled with magnetic particles, their effective mechanical response can be modified by an external magnetic field. In the present…
The geometry of bending-active kirigami arches, decorated by cuts and holes, is strongly influenced by the location and geometry of the perforations. This study demonstrates that, in some instances, the geometric stiffening induced by…
We investigate the mechanical properties of amorphous polymers by means of coarse-grained simulations and nonaffine lattice dynamics theory. A small increase of polymer chain bending stiffness leads first to softening of the material, while…
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…
In stiff fiber-reinforced material, the high shear stress concentration occurs in the narrow region between fibers. With the addition of a small geometric change in cross-section, such as a thin fiber or a overhanging part of fiber, the…
It has become clear in recent years that the simple uniform wormlike chain model needs to be modified in order to account for more complex behavior which has been observed experimentally in some important biopolymers. For example, the large…
We analyse the nature of the confinement of an infinitely long (and finite) linear semiflexible homo-polymer chain confined in between two geometrical constraints (A&B) under good solvent condition in two dimensions. The constraints are…
Paper materials are natural composite materials and well-known to be hydrophilic unless chemical and mechanical processing treatments are undertaken. The relative humidity impacts the fiber elasticity, the fiber-fiber bonds and the failure…
We demonstrate experimentally the fine lateral circular birefringence of a tunable birefringent polymer, the first example of the spin Hall effect of light in a polymeric material. We report experimental observations of this effect using…