195 research outputs found
Elastic building blocks for confined sheets
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 stress distributions and energies, and reflect different constraints. A focused-stress patch is subject to a geometric, piecewise-inextensibility constraint, whereas a diffuse-stress region is characterized by a mechanical constraint - the dominance of a single component of the stress tensor. We discuss the implications of our findings for the analysis of elastic sheets that are subject to various types of forcing
Fractal to Nonfractal Phase Transition in the Dielectric Breakdown Model
A fast method is presented for simulating the dielectric-breakdown model
using iterated conformal mappings. Numerical results for the dimension and for
corrections to scaling are in good agreement with the recent RG prediction of
an upper critical , at which a transition occurs between branching
fractal clusters and one-dimensional nonfractal clusters.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures; corrections to scaling include
A prototypical model for tensional wrinkling in thin sheets
The buckling and wrinkling of thin films has recently seen a surge of interest among physicists, biologists, mathematicians and engineers. This has been triggered by the growing interest in developing technologies at ever decreasing scales and the resulting necessity to control the mechanics of tiny structures, as well as by the realization that morphogenetic processes, such as the tissue-shaping instabilities occurring in animal epithelia or plant leaves, often emerge from mechanical instabilities of cell sheets. While the most basic buckling instability of uniaxially compressed plates was understood by Euler more than 200 years ago, recent experiments on nanometrically thin (ultrathin) films have shown significant deviations from predictions of standard buckling theory. Motivated by this puzzle, we introduce here a theoretical model that allows for a systematic analysis of wrinkling in sheets far from their instability threshold. We focus on the simplest extension of Euler buckling that exhibits wrinkles of finite length - a sheet under axisymmetric tensile loads. This geometry, whose first study is attributed to LamÂŽe, allows us to construct\ud
a phase diagram that demonstrates the dramatic variation of wrinkling patterns from near-threshold to far-from-threshold conditions. Theoretical arguments and comparison to experiments show that for thin sheets the far-from-threshold regime is expected to emerge under extremely small compressive loads, emphasizing the relevance of our analysis for nanomechanics applications
Capillary deformations of bendable films
We address the partial wetting of liquid drops on ultrathin solid sheets resting on a deformable foundation. Considering the membrane limit of sheets that can relax compression through wrinkling at negligible energetic cost, we revisit the classical theory for the contact of liquid drops on solids. Our calculations and experiments show that the liquid-solid-vapor contact angle is modified from the Young angle, even though the elastic bulk modulus (E) of the sheet is so large that the ratio between the surface tension Îł and E is of molecular size. This finding establishes a new type of âsoft capillarityâ that stems from the bendability of thin elastic bodies rather than from material softness. We also show that the size of the wrinkle pattern that emerges in the sheet is fully predictable, thus resolving a puzzle noticed in several previous attempts to model âdrop-on-a-floating-sheetâ experiments, and enabling a reliable usage of this setup for the metrology of ultrathin films
A smooth cascade of wrinkles at the edge of a floating elastic film
The mechanism by which a patterned state accommodates the breaking of
translational symmetry by a phase boundary or a sample wall has been addressed
in the context of Landau branching in type-I superconductors, refinement of
magnetic domains, and compressed elastic sheets. We explore this issue by
studying an ultrathin polymer sheet floating on the surface of a fluid,
decorated with a pattern of parallel wrinkles. At the edge of the sheet, this
corrugated profile meets the fluid meniscus. Rather than branching of wrinkles
into generations of ever-smaller sharp folds, we discover a smooth cascade in
which the coarse pattern in the bulk is matched to fine structure at the edge
by the continuous introduction of discrete, higher wavenumber Fourier modes.
The observed multiscale morphology is controlled by a dimensionless parameter
that quantifies the relative strength of the edge forces and the rigidity of
the bulk pattern.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Diffusion limited aggregation as a Markovian process: site-sticking conditions
Cylindrical lattice diffusion limited aggregation (DLA), with a narrow width
N, is solved for site-sticking conditions using a Markovian matrix method
(which was previously developed for the bond-sticking case). This matrix
contains the probabilities that the front moves from one configuration to
another at each growth step, calculated exactly by solving the Laplace equation
and using the proper normalization. The method is applied for a series of
approximations, which include only a finite number of rows near the front. The
fractal dimensionality of the aggregate is extrapolated to a value near 1.68.Comment: 27 Revtex pages, 16 figure
Statistical Physics of Fracture Surfaces Morphology
Experiments on fracture surface morphologies offer increasing amounts of data
that can be analyzed using methods of statistical physics. One finds scaling
exponents associated with correlation and structure functions, indicating a
rich phenomenology of anomalous scaling. We argue that traditional models of
fracture fail to reproduce this rich phenomenology and new ideas and concepts
are called for. We present some recent models that introduce the effects of
deviations from homogeneous linear elasticity theory on the morphology of
fracture surfaces, succeeding to reproduce the multiscaling phenomenology at
least in 1+1 dimensions. For surfaces in 2+1 dimensions we introduce novel
methods of analysis based on projecting the data on the irreducible
representations of the SO(2) symmetry group. It appears that this approach
organizes effectively the rich scaling properties. We end up with the
proposition of new experiments in which the rotational symmetry is not broken,
such that the scaling properties should be particularly simple.Comment: A review paper submitted to J. Stat. Phy
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Van der Walls interaction affects wrinkle formation in two-dimensional materials
Nonlinear mechanics of solids is an exciting field that encompasses both beautiful mathematics, such as the emergence of instabilities and the formation of complex patterns, as well as multiple applications. Two-dimensional crystals and van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures allow revisiting this field on the atomic level, allowing much finer control over the parameters and offering atomistic interpretation of experimental observations. In this work, we consider the formation of instabilities consisting of radially oriented wrinkles around mono- and few-layer âbubblesâ in two-dimensional vdW heterostructures. Interestingly, the shape and wavelength of the wrinkles depend not only on the thickness of the two-dimensional crystal forming the bubble, but also on the atomistic structure of the interface between the bubble and the substrate, which can be controlled by their relative orientation. We argue that the periodic nature of these patterns emanates from an energetic balance between the resistance of the top membrane to bending, which favors large wavelength of wrinkles, and the membrane-substrate vdW attraction, which favors small wrinkle amplitude. Employing the classical âWinkler foundationâ model of elasticity theory, we show that the number of radial wrinkles conveys a valuable relationship between the bending rigidity of the top membrane and the strength of the vdW interaction. Armed with this relationship, we use our data to demonstrate a nontrivial dependence of the bending rigidity on the number of layers in the top membrane, which shows two different regimes driven by slippage between the layers, and a high sensitivity of the vdW force to the alignment between the substrate and the membrane
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Regression, developmental trajectory and associated problems in disorders in the autism spectrum: the SNAP study
We report rates of regression and associated findings in a population derived group of 255 children aged 9-14 years, participating in a prevalence study of autism spectrum disorders (ASD); 53 with narrowly defined autism, 105 with broader ASD and 97 with non-ASD neurodevelopmental problems, drawn from those with special educational needs within a population of 56,946 children. Language regression was reported in 30% with narrowly defined autism, 8% with broader ASD and less than 3% with developmental problems without ASD. A smaller group of children were identified who underwent a less clear setback. Regression was associated with higher rates of autistic symptoms and a deviation in developmental trajectory. Regression was not associated with epilepsy or gastrointestinal problems
Log-periodic route to fractal functions
Log-periodic oscillations have been found to decorate the usual power law
behavior found to describe the approach to a critical point, when the
continuous scale-invariance symmetry is partially broken into a discrete-scale
invariance (DSI) symmetry. We classify the `Weierstrass-type'' solutions of the
renormalization group equation F(x)= g(x)+(1/m)F(g x) into two classes
characterized by the amplitudes A(n) of the power law series expansion. These
two classes are separated by a novel ``critical'' point. Growth processes
(DLA), rupture, earthquake and financial crashes seem to be characterized by
oscillatory or bounded regular microscopic functions g(x) that lead to a slow
power law decay of A(n), giving strong log-periodic amplitudes. In contrast,
the regular function g(x) of statistical physics models with
``ferromagnetic''-type interactions at equibrium involves unbound logarithms of
polynomials of the control variable that lead to a fast exponential decay of
A(n) giving weak log-periodic amplitudes and smoothed observables. These two
classes of behavior can be traced back to the existence or abscence of
``antiferromagnetic'' or ``dipolar''-type interactions which, when present,
make the Green functions non-monotonous oscillatory and favor spatial modulated
patterns.Comment: Latex document of 29 pages + 20 ps figures, addition of a new
demonstration of the source of strong log-periodicity and of a justification
of the general offered classification, update of reference lis
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