Related papers: Slit-snapping and multistability in buckled beams …
Numerous soft materials jam into an amorphous solid at high packing fraction. This non-equilibrium phase transition is best understood in the context of a model system in which particles repel elastically when they overlap. Recently,…
Snapping mechanisms are investigated for an elastic strip with ends imposed to move and rotate in time. Attacking the problem analytically via Euler's elastica and the second variation of the total potential energy, the number of stable…
An elastic arch is an archetypal bistable system. Here, we combine elastica theory and photo-mechanical experiments to elucidate the mechanics of an active arch with a spatio-temporally varying preferred curvature $\overline \kappa(s)$. Our…
The elastic behavior of materials operating in the linear regime is constrained, by definition, to operations that are linear in the imposed deformation. Though the nonlinear regime holds promise for new functionality, the design in this…
A crystal plasticity theory was developed for use in simulations of dynamic loading at high pressures and strain rates. At pressures of the order of the bulk modulus, compressions o(100%) may be induced. At strain rates o(10^9)/s or higher,…
This paper proposes a new metamaterial structure consisting of a periodically porous elastomer with pore coatings. This design enables us to engender finite deformation by a contactless load. As a case study, we apply thermal load to the…
The paper deals with the interaction between buckling and resonance instabilities of mechanical systems. Taking into account the effect of geometric nonlinearity in the equations of motion through the geometric stiffness matrix, the problem…
We study the snapping instability of a spherical elastic shell induced by a viscous flow, the umbrella flipping problem when life is at low Reynolds numbers. We combine precision desktop-scale experiments, fluid-structure simulations, shell…
A rectangular plate of dielectric elastomer exhibiting gradients of material properties through its thickness will deform inhomogeneously when a potential difference is applied to compliant electrodes on its major surfaces, because each…
Unlike macroscopic multistable mechanical systems such as snap bracelets or elastic shells that must be physically manipulated into various conformations, microscopic systems can undergo spontaneous conformation switching between…
The bistability of embedded elements provides a natural route through which to introduce reprogrammability to elastic meta-materials. One example of this is the soft morphable sheet, in which bistable elements that can be snapped up or…
We create mechanical metamaterials whose response to uniaxial compression can be programmed by lateral confinement, allowing monotonic, non-monotonic and hysteretic behavior. These functionalities arise from a broken rotational symmetry…
When stressed sufficiently, solid materials yield and deform plastically via reorganization of microscopic constituents. Indeed, it is possible to alter the micro-structure of materials by judicious application of stress, an empirical pro-…
Inflated continuum robots are promising for a variety of navigation tasks, but controlling their motion with a small number of actuators is challenging. These inflated beam robots tend to buckle under compressive loads, producing extremely…
A variety of soft and hard condensed matter systems are known to form stripe patterns. Here we use numerical simulations to analyze how such stripe states depin and slide when interacting with a random substrate and with driving in…
The buckling instability of micro- and nanopillars can be an issue when designing intelligent miniaturized devices and characterizing composite materials reinforced with beam-like particles on the small-scale. Analytical modeling of the…
Curved beams are basic structural components of Nano-Electro-Mechanical-Sistems (NEMS) whose design requires appropriate modelling of scale effects. In the present paper, the size-dependent static behaviour of curved elastic nano-beams is…
Shell buckling is central in many biological structures and advanced functional materials, even if, traditionally, this elastic instability has been regarded as a catastrophic phenomenon to be avoided for engineering structures. Either way,…
We study a disordered network of bistable bonds subjected to periodic strain. The model is inspired by experiments on crumpled sheets and it features behaviors associated with glasses, including a complex energy landscape, memories, and…
Fitting two different materials is a versatile methodology in manufacturing complex structures. One of the canonical models for fitting is the snap-fit model, in which flexible materials and rigid structures are assembled by pushing their…