相关论文: Molecular spring: from spider silk to silkworm sil…
We study two aspects of the elasticity of smectic-$A$ elastomers that make these materials genuinely and qualitatively different from conventional uniaxial rubbers. Under strain applied parallel to the layer normal, monodomain smectic-$A$…
Molecular spiders are synthetic molecular motors based on DNA nanotechnology. While natural molecular motors have evolved towards very high efficiency, it remains a major challenge to develop efficient designs for man-made molecular motors.…
Yield stress materials form an interesting class of materials that behave like solids at small stresses, but start to flow once a critical stress is exceeded. It has already been reported both in experimental and simulation work that flow…
Measuring the mechanical properties of cells and tissues often involves indentation with a sphere, or compression between two plates. Previously, different theoretical approaches have been developed to retrieve material parameters (e.g.…
Experiments show that when a monolayer of cells cultured on an elastic substrate is subject to a cyclic stretch, cells tend to re-orient either perpendicularly or at an oblique angle with respect to the main direction of the stretch. Due to…
An essential element in the web-trap architecture, the capture silk spun by ecribellate orb spiders consists of glue droplets sitting astride a silk filament. Mechanically this thread presents a mixed solid-liquid behavior unknown to date.…
Comparison of a few simple models of fluid and solid membranes illustrates how shear stresses can arise from a bending energy through a coupling between curvature and surface stresses, a feature incidental to the fluid or solid nature of…
We have studied the elastic response of actin networks with both compliant and rigid crosslinks by modeling molecular motors as force dipoles. Our finite element simulations show that for compliant crosslinkers such as filamin A, the…
The mathematical modeling of the contraction of a muscle is a crucial problem in biomechanics. Several different models of muscle activation exist in literature. A possible approach to contractility is the so-called active strain: it is…
Molecular spiders are synthetic bio-molecular systems which have "legs" made of short single-stranded segments of DNA. Spiders move on a surface covered with single-stranded DNA segments complementary to legs. Different mappings are…
Micron-scale single crystalline materials deform plastically via large intermittent strain bursts that make the deformation process unpredictable. Here we investigate this stochastic phenomenon by analysing the plastic response of an…
The double-helical structure of DNA results from canonical base pairing and stacking interactions. However, variations from steady-state conformations result from mechanical perturbations in cells. These different topologies have…
The statistical physics and dynamics of double supported bilayers are studied theoretically. The main goal in designing double supported lipid bilayers is to obtain model systems of biomembranes: the upper bilayer is meant to be almost…
We study the behavior of thin elastic sheets that are bent and strained under the influence of weak, smooth confinement. We show that the emerging shapes exhibit the coexistence of two types of domains that differ in their characteristic…
This article studies the fundamental problem of separating two adhesive elastic fibers based on numerical simulation employing a recently developed finite element model for molecular interactions between curved slender fibers. Specifically,…
Embedding magnetic colloidal particles in an elastic polymer matrix leads to smart soft materials that can reversibly be addressed from outside by external magnetic fields. We discover a pronounced nonlinear superelastic stress-strain…
Natural ecosystems are characterized by striking diversity of form and functions and yet exhibit deep symmetries emerging across scales of space, time and organizational complexity. Species-area relationships and species-abundance…
Many fibrous materials are modeled as elastic networks featuring a substantial separation between the stiffness scales that characterize different microscopic deformation modes of the network's constituents. This scale separation has been…
We solve the dynamic equations of motion for a growing semi-flexible polymer, or fiber, approaching a fluctuating membrane at an angle. At late times we find three different regimes: fiber {\em stalling}, when fiber growth stops due to…
Soft membranes are commonly employed in shape-morphing applications, where the material is programmed to achieve a target shape upon activation by an external trigger, and as coating layers that alter the surface characteristics of bulk…