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In the dilute limit Eshelby's inclusion theory captures the behavior of a wide range of systems and properties. However, because Eshelby's approach neglects interfacial stress, it breaks down in soft materials as the inclusion size…
The synaptic connectivity of cortex is plastic, with experience shaping the ongoing interactions between neurons. Theoretical studies of spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) have focused on either just pairs of neurons or large-scale…
The mechanics of disordered fibrous networks such as those that make up the extracellular matrix are strongly dependent on the local connectivity or coordination number. For biopolymer networks this coordination number is typically between…
We study the elasticity of fibrous materials composed of generalized stiff polymers. It is shown that in contrast to cellular foam-like structures affine strain fields are generically unstable. Instead, a subtle interplay between the…
The importance of surface tension effects is being recognized in the context of soft composite solids, where it is found to significantly affect the mechanical properties, such as the elastic response to an external stress. It has recently…
Active nematics, formed from a liquid crystalline suspension of active force dipoles, are a paradigmatic active matter system whose study provides insights into how chemical driving produces the cellular mechanical forces essential for…
The present paper is concerned with the formulation of new assembly methods of bi-material tensegrity prisms, and the experimental characterization of the compressive response of such structures. The presented assembly techniques are easy…
There is an increased demand for task automation in robots. Contact-rich tasks, wherein multiple contact transitions occur in a series of operations, are extensively being studied to realize high accuracy. In this study, we propose a…
Composites with high strength and high fracture resistance are desirable for structural and protective applications. Most composites, however, suffer from poor damage tolerance and are prone to unpredictable fractures. Understanding the…
Magnetic soft robots embedded with hard magnetic particles enable untethered actuation via external magnetic fields, offering remote, rapid, and precise control, which is highly promising for biomedical applications. However, designing such…
We investigate experimentally the mechanical response of a monolayer of bi-disperse frictional grains to an inhomogeneous shear perturbation across the jamming transition. We inflate an intruder inside the packing and use photo-elasticity…
Regularization strategies in medical image registration often take a one-size-fits-all approach by imposing uniform constraints across the entire image domain. Yet biological structures are anything but regular. Lacking structural…
Evolution in time-varying environments naturally leads to adaptable biological systems that can easily switch functionalities. Advances in the synthesis of environmentally-responsive materials therefore open up the possibility of creating a…
The computational analysis of fiber network fracture is an emerging field with application to paper, rubber-like materials, hydrogels, soft biological tissue, and composites. Fiber networks are often described as probabilistic structures of…
The accuracy and fidelity of deformation simulations are highly dependent upon the underlying constitutive material model. Commonly used linear or nonlinear constitutive material models only cover a tiny part of possible material behavior.…
Shape memory materials have gained considerable attention thanks to their ability to change physical properties when subjected to external stimuli such as temperature, pH, humidity, electromagnetic fields, etc. These materials are…
Animal cells in tissues are supported by biopolymer matrices, which typically exhibit highly nonlinear mechanical properties. While the linear elasticity of the matrix can significantly impact cell mechanics and functionality, it remains…
We study the athermal mechanical response of deformable ring assemblies to quasistatic compression. Beyond jamming, further densification induces buckling of rings, resulting in macroscopic mechanical softening. Under cyclic compression,…
Predicting the rheological behavior of associative polymers bridging colloidal particles into transient networks is fundamentally challenging because the coupled spatiotemporal scales prevent efficient molecular-fidelity modeling. We…
The plasticity of amorphous solids undergoing shear is characterized by quasi-localized rearrangements of particles. While many models of plasticity exist, the precise relationship between plastic dynamics and the structure of a particle's…