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We present a numerical study of stretching monodomain smectic-A elastomer sheets, computed using the finite element method. When stretched parallel to the layer normal the microscopic layers in smectic elastomers are unstable to a…
Semiflexible polymers are widely used as a paradigm for understanding structural phases in biomolecules including folding of proteins. Here, we compare bead-spring and bead-stick variants of coarse-grained semiflexible polymer models that…
In this paper an experimental validation of numerical approaches aimed to predict the coupled behaviour of microbeams for out-of-plane bending tests is performed. This work completes a previous investigation concerning in plane microbeams…
There have been some interesting recent advances in understanding the notion of mechanical disorder in structural glasses and the statistical mechanics of these systems' low-energy excitations. Here we contribute to these advances by…
A slender thread of elastic hydrogel is susceptible to a surface instability that is reminiscent of the classical Rayleigh-Plateau instability of liquid jets. The final, highly nonlinear states that are observed in experiments arise from a…
We study the dynamics of MEMS microbeams undergoing electrostatic pull-in. At DC voltages close to the pull-in voltage, experiments and numerical simulations have reported `bottleneck' behaviour in which the transient dynamics slow down…
Compressive mechanical stress exceeding a critical value leads to the formation of periodic surface buckling patterns in film-substrate systems. A comprehensive understanding of this buckling phenomenon is desired in applications where the…
The goal of this thesis is to gain new insights into the drift phenomenon and identify strategies to mitigate it. An extensive experimental characterization of PCM devices and in particular drift forms the foundation of each chapter. With…
Inelastic mechanical responses in solids, such as plasticity, damage and crack initiation, are typically modeled in constitutive ways that display microstructural and loading dependence. Nevertheless, {linear} elasticity at infinitesimal…
In this work, an efficient and robust isogeometric three-dimensional solid-beam finite element is developed for large deformations and finite rotations with merely displacements as degrees of freedom. The finite strain theory and…
Developing a unified theory describing both ductile and brittle yielding constitutes a fundamental challenge of non-equilibrium statistical physics. Recently, it has been proposed that the nature of the yielding transition is controlled by…
The present contribution proposes a general constitutive model to simulate the orthotropic stiffness, pre-peak nonlinearity, failure envelopes, and the post-peak softening and fracture of textile composites. Following the microplane model…
Initially straight slender elastic rods with geometrically constrained ends buckle and form stable two-dimensional shapes when compressed by bringing the ends together. It is also known that beyond a critical value of the pre-stress,…
Multiscale periodic metamaterials have been designed for numerous applications, such as impact absorption, acoustic cloaking, photonic band gaps, and mechanical logic gates. This prior work has focused on optimizing mesoscale structure for…
We explore the undamped response of step-voltage driven parallel plates and fixed-fixed microbeams. We consider a third order correction in the parallel plate system as a reduced order system to model mid-plane stretching in fixed-fixed…
This paper presents a mechanically bistable mechanism of the compressed pre-curved beam. A governing equation is proposed which can be used to predict and explain the bistability of the compressed pre-curved beam. FE simulations and…
Multistable structures are objects with more than one stable conformation, exemplified by the simple switch. Continuum versions are often elastic composite plates or shells, such as the common measuring tape or the slap bracelet, both of…
A design concept is introduced for the building block, a dot, of programmable braille readers utilizing bistable shell buckling, magnetic actuation, and pneumatic loading. The design process is guided by Finite Element simulations, which…
When quickly detaching an elastomer from a counterface, viscoelasticity dramatically increases the perceived adhesion relative to its adiabatic or equilibrium value. Here, we report simulations on the sticking contact between a rigid…
The interplay of inertia and elasticity is shown to have a significant impact on the transport of filamentary objects, modelled by bead-spring chains, in a two-dimensional turbulent flow. We show how elastic interactions amongst inertial…