相关论文: Hierarchical geometries and adhesion: Bio-inspired…
Structural hierarchy, in which materials possess distinct features on multiple length scales, is ubiquitous in nature; diverse biological materials, such as bone, cellulose, and muscle, have as many as ten hierarchical levels. Structural…
Nature has engineered complex designs to achieve advanced properties and functionalities through evolution, over millions of years. Many organisms have adapted to their living environment producing extremely efficient materials and…
Durable interfacing of hard and soft materials is a major design challenge caused by the ensuing stress concentrations. In nature, soft-hard interfaces exhibit remarkable mechanical performance, with failures rarely happening at the…
Hierarchical structures with constituents over multiple length scales are found in various natural materials like bones, shells, spider silk and others, all of which display enhanced quasi-static mechanical properties, such as high specific…
Hierarchical structures are very common in Nature, but only recently have they been systematically studied in materials physics, in order to understand the specific effects they can have on the mechanical properties of various systems.…
The principle of hierarchical design is a prominent theme in many natural systems where mechanical efficiency is of importance. Here we establish the properties of a particular hierarchical structure, showing that high mechanical efficiency…
Contact unit size reduction is a widely studied mechanism as a means to improve adhesion in natural fibrillar systems, such as those observed in beetles or geckos. However, these animals also display complex structural features in the way…
Hierarchically designed mechanical metamaterials involve nested levels of structural organization, mimicking natural structures (such as bones, wood, and bird feathers) to create advanced functional materials. Compositional hierarchy, a…
Soft and biological matter come in a variety of shapes and geometries. When soft surfaces that do not fit into each other due to a mismatch in Gaussian curvatures form an interface, beautiful geometry-induced patterns emerge. In this paper,…
Suture joints contribute to the exceptional combination of stiffness, strength, toughness and efficient load bearing and transmission of many biological structures like the cranium or ammonite fossil shells. However, their role in the…
Biological materials exhibit complex structure-property relationships which are only beginning to be elucidated. Understanding the underlying physical mechanisms of the structure-property relationships is the key to designing bioinspired…
Hierarchical organization -- the recursive composition of sub-modules -- is ubiquitous in biological networks, including neural, metabolic, ecological, and genetic regulatory networks, and in human-made systems, such as large organizations…
Self-assembly in the laboratory can now yield `information-rich' nanostructures in which each component is of a distinct type and has a defined spatial position. Ensuring the thermodynamic stability of such structures requires…
The structure and degree of order in soft matter and other materials is intimately connected to the nature of the interactions between the particles. One important research goal is to find suitable control mechanisms, to enhance or suppress…
Rigidity is an emergent property of materials - it is not a feature of individual components that comprise the structure, but instead arises from interactions between many constituent parts. Recently, it has been recognized that…
Topologically interlocked materials and structures, which are assemblies of unbonded interlocking building blocks, are promising concepts for versatile structural applications. They have been shown to exhibit exceptional mechanical…
Tissue engineering aims to grow artificial tissues \emph{in vitro} to replace those in the body that have been damaged through age, trauma or disease. A recent approach to engineer artificial cartilage involves seeding cells within a…
There is evidence that the self-assembly of complex molecular systems often proceeds hierarchically, by first building subunits that later assemble in larger entities, in a process that can repeat multiple times. Yet, our understanding of…
Materials that are lightweight yet exhibit superior mechanical properties are of compelling importance for several technological applications that range from aircrafts to household appliances. Lightweight materials allow energy saving and…
We study open-ended evolution by focusing on computational and information-processing dynamics underlying major evolutionary transitions. In doing so, we consider biological organisms as hierarchical dynamical systems that generate…