Related papers: Elastic Effects in Disordered Nematic Networks
Motivated by recent experiments showing nonlinear elasticity of in vitro networks of the biopolymer actin cross-linked with filamin, we present an effective medium theory of flexibly cross-linked stiff polymer networks. We model such…
We introduce a mathematical model for the mechanical behaviour of the eukaryotic cell cytoskeleton. This discrete model involves a regular array of pre-stressed protein filaments that exhibit resistance to enthalpic stretching, joined at…
Electronic nematic order is a correlated phase of matter in which low-energy electronic states spontaneously break a discrete rotational symmetry of a crystal lattice. Bilinear coupling between the electronic nematic and strains of the same…
We reveal significant qualitative differences in the rigidity transition of three types of disordered network materials: randomly diluted spring networks, jammed sphere packings, and stress-relieved networks that are diluted using a…
In the field of soft dielectric elastomers, the notion electrostriction indicates the dependency of the permittivity on strain. The present paper is aimed at investigating the effects of electrostriction onto the stability behaviour of…
Prestrained elastic networks arise in a number of biological and technological systems ranging from the cytoskeleton of cells to tensegrity structures. To understand the response of such a network as a function of the prestrain, we consider…
We develop a continuum theory for equilibrium elasticity of a network of crosslinked semiflexible filaments, spanning the full range between flexible entropy-driven chains to stiff athermal rods. We choose the 3-chain constitutive model…
Recent experiments have demonstrated that the nonlinear elasticity of in vitro networks of the biopolymer actin is dramatically altered in the presence of a flexible cross-linker such as the abundant cytoskeletal protein filamin. The basic…
This paper formally analyses effects of nematic weak elasticity using the five parametric de Gennes (DG) potential. The analysis is trivialized in a specific (local) Cartesian coordinate system whose one axis is directed along the initial…
We develop an effective medium approach to the mechanics of disordered, semiflexible polymer networks and study the response of such networks to uniform and nonuniform strain. We identify distinct elastic regimes in which the contributions…
Nematic elastomers are a particular class of liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) that exhibit both liquid-crystalline order and rubber (entropic) elasticity. This combination makes them stimuli-responsive soft materials with a number of…
We study the coarsening of two-dimensional oblique stripe patterns by numerically solving potential and nonpotential anisotropic Swift-Hohenberg equations. Close to onset, all models exhibit isotropic coarsening with a single characteristic…
We present a detailed analysis of the molecular packing of a strained liquid crystal elastomer composed of chiral mesogens in the smectic A phase. X-ray diffraction patterns of the elastomer collected over a range of orientations with…
Stress-stress correlations in crystalline solids with long-range order can be straightforwardly derived using elasticity theory. In contrast, the `emergent elasticity' of amorphous solids, rigid materials characterized by an underlying…
The structure of DNA in the nucleosome core particle is studied using an elastic model that incorporates anisotropy in the bending energetics and twist-bend coupling. Using the experimentally determined structure of nucleosomal DNA [T.J.…
The local elastic properties of strongly disordered host material are investigated using the theory of correlated random matrices. A significant increase in stiffness is shown in the interfacial region, which thickness depends on the…
Statistical mechanics is an important tool for understanding polymer electroelasticity because the elasticity of polymers is primarily due to entropy. However, a common approach for the statistical mechanics of polymer chains, the Gaussian…
We investigate the dynamic phase transition from partially or fully arrested state to spatiotemporal chaos in coupled logistic maps on a small-world network. Persistence of local variables in coarse grained sense acts as an excellent order…
We describe the basic properties and consequences of introducing active stresses, with principal direction along the local director, in cholesteric liquid crystals. The helical ground state is found to be linearly unstable to extensile…
Amongst the various fascinating types of material behavior featured by magnetic gels and elastomers are magnetostrictive effects. That is, deformations in shape or changes in volume are induced from outside by external magnetic fields.…