Related papers: Mechanical limits of viral capsids
We study theoretically and numerically the microscopic cause of the mechanical stability of hard sphere glasses near their maximum packing. We show that, after coarse-graining over time, the hard sphere interaction can be described by an…
The fluid-solid-electric dynamics of a flexible plate covered by interconnected piezoelectric patches in an axial steady flow are investigated using numerical simulations based on a reduced-order model of the fluid loading for slender…
We simulate a hard-sphere liquid in confined geometry where the separation of the two parallel, hard walls is smaller than two particle diameters. By systematically reducing the wall separation we analyze the behavior of structural and…
We extend our previously developed general approach (1) to study a phenomenological model in which the simulated packing of hard, attractive spheres on a prolate spheroid surface with convexity constraints produces structures identical to…
We study how the loading rate, specimen geometry and microstructural texture select the dynamics of a crack moving through an heterogeneous elastic material in the quasi-static approximation. We find a transition, fully controlled by two…
Polar regions are covered by sea ice, which can be seen as a thin solid elastic sheet with heterogeneous mechanical properties. The dynamics of deformation of a floating solid sheet are primarly governed by gravity, water density, and the…
When a flexible filament is confined to a fluid interface, the balance between capillary attraction, bending resistance, and tension from an external source can lead to a self-buckling instability. We perform an analysis of this instability…
It has recently been discovered that the viscoelastic properties of cells are inherent markers reflecting the complex biological states, functions and malfunctions of the cells. Although the extraction of model parameters from the…
We study experimentally the fracture mechanisms of a model cohesive granular medium consisting of glass beads held together by solidified polymer bridges. The elastic response of this material can be controlled by changing the cross-linking…
We investigate dynamic fracture of heterogeneous materials experimentally by measuring displacement fields as a rupture propagates through a periodic array of obstacles of controlled fracture energy. Our measurements demonstrate the…
Changes in the mechanical properties of granular materials, induced by variations in the intrinsic compressibility of the particles, are investigated by means of numerical simulations based on the combination of the Finite Element and…
The mechanical properties of biological materials are spatially heterogeneous. Typical tissues are made up of a spanning fibrous extracellular matrix in which various inclusions, such as living cells, are embedded. While the influence of…
If a porous media is being damaged by excessive stress, the elastic matrix at every infinitesimal volume separates into a 'solid' and a 'broken' component. The 'solid' part is the one that is capable of transferring stress, whereas the…
The behaviour of elastic structures undergoing large deformations is the result of the competition between confining conditions, self-avoidance and elasticity. This combination of multiple phenomena creates a geometrical frustration that…
We study an interacting particle system of a finite number of labelled particles on the integer lattice, in which particles have intrinsic masses and left/right jump rates. If a particle is the minimal-label particle at its site when it…
In self-assembly processes, kinetic trapping effects often hinder the formation of thermodynamically stable ordered states. In a model of viral capsid assembly and in the phase transformation of a lattice gas, we show how simulations in a…
The approach of the elastic continuum limit in small amorphous bodies formed by weakly polydisperse Lennard-Jones beads is investigated in a systematic finite-size study. We show that classical continuum elasticity breaks down when the…
Single-molecule pulling experiments on unstructured proteins linked to neurodegenerative diseases have measured rupture forces comparable to those for stable folded proteins. To investigate the structural mechanisms of this unexpected force…
While crack nucleation and propagation in the brittle or quasi-brittle regime can be predicted via variational or material-force-based phase field fracture models, these models often assume that the underlying elastic response of the…
Using a tight-binding atomistic simulation, we simulate the recent atomic-force microscopy experiments probing the slipperiness of graphene flakes made slide against a graphite surface. Compared to previous theoretical models, where the…