Related papers: Slit-snapping and multistability in buckled beams …
The buckling of a soft elastic sample under growth or swelling has highlighted a new interest in materials science, morphogenesis, and biology or physiology. Indeed, the change of mass or volume is a common fact of any living species, and…
We introduce a high-throughput platform that enables simultaneous, parallel testing of six bistable beams via programmable motion of a rotating disk. By prescribing harmonic angular dynamics, the platform explores the phase space of angular…
Structural instability is a hazard that leads to catastrophic failure and is generally avoided through special designs. A trend, however, has emerged over the past decades pointing to the harnessing of mechanisms with instability. Inspired…
Bistable shells can reversibly change between two stable configurations with very little energetic input. Understanding what governs the shape and snap-through criteria of these structures is crucial for designing devices that utilize…
A collection of thin structures buckle, bend, and bump into each-other when confined. This contact can lead to the formation of patterns: hair will self-organize in curls; DNA strands will layer into cell nuclei; paper, when crumpled, will…
Architected materials achieve unique mechanical properties through precisely engineered microstructures that minimize material usage. However, a key challenge of low-density materials is balancing high stiffness with stable deformability up…
Beams made from thin-walled elements, whilst very efficient in terms of the structural strength and stiffness to weight ratios, can be susceptible to highly complex instability phenomena. A nonlinear analytical formulation based on…
Many elastic structures have two possible equilibrium states: from umbrellas that become inverted in a sudden gust of wind, to nano-electromechanical switches, origami patterns and the hopper popper, which jumps after being turned…
Asymptotic post-buckling theory is applied to sizing and topology optimization of trusses and frames, exploring its potential and current computational difficulties. We show that a designs' post-buckling response can be controlled by…
Rotating the clamped ends of a buckled elastica induces a snap-through instability. Predicting the limit point and determining the equilibria at the start and end of the snap are routine computations in the quasi-static setting. The…
The nonlinear mechanics of a flexible elastic rod constrained at its edges by a pair of sliding sleeves is analyzed. The planar equilibrium configurations of this variable-length elastica are found to have shape defined only by the…
Active filaments are a workhorse for propulsion and actuation across biology, soft robotics and mechanical metamaterials. However, artificial active rods suffer from limited robustness and adaptivity because they rely on external control,…
An analytical model based on variational principles for a thin-walled stiffened plate subjected to axial compression is presented. A system of nonlinear differential and integral equations is derived and solved using numerical continuation.…
Many elastic structures exhibit rapid shape transitions between two possible equilibrium states: umbrellas become inverted in strong wind and hopper popper toys jump when turned inside-out. This snap-through is a general motif for the…
Multistability -- the emergence of multiple stable states under identical conditions -- is a hallmark of nonlinear complexity and an enabling mechanism for multilevel optical memory and photonic computing. Its realization in a compact…
We introduce a model of fracture which includes the out-of-plane degrees of freedom necessary to describe buckling in a thin-sheet material. The model is a regular square lattice of elastic beams, rigidly connected at the nodes so as to…
Understanding how stick-slip dynamics manifests in diverse physical conditions is a crucial topic in tribology. Although it has been extensively studied in simple frictional configurations, the characterization of stick-slip behavior in…
We study how crack buckling affects stress and strain in a thin sheet with random disorder. The sheet is modeled as an elastic lattice of beams where each of the beams have individual thresholds for breaking. A statistical distribution with…
The interplay between cytoskeletal architecture and the nonlinearity of the interactions due to bucklable filaments plays a key role in modulating the cell's mechanical stability and affecting its structural rearrangements. We study a model…
We investigate the buckling and post-buckling properties of a hyperelastic half-space coated by two hyperelastic layers when the composite structure is subjected to a uniaxial compression. In the case of a half-space coated with a {\it…