Tension-induced giant actuation in elastic sheets
Buckling is normally associated with a compressive load applied to a slender structure; from railway tracks in extreme heat to microtubules in cytoplasm, axial compression is relieved by out-of-plane buckling. However, recent studies have demonstrated that tension applied to structured thin sheets leads to transverse motion that may be harnessed for novel applications, such as kirigami grippers, multi-stable `groovy-sheets’, and elastic ribbed sheets that close into tubes. Qualitatively similar behaviour has also been observed in simulations of thermalized graphene sheets, where clamping along one edge leads to tilting in the transverse direction. I will discuss how this counter-intuitive behaviour is, in fact, generic for thin sheets that have a relatively low stretching modulus compared to the bending modulus, which allows `giant actuation’ with moderate strain.
Date: 21 November 2024, 12:00 (Thursday, 6th week, Michaelmas 2024)
Venue: Mathematical Institute, Woodstock Road OX2 6GG
Venue Details: L3
Speakers: Dr. Marc Suñé (University of Oxford), Dr. Georgia Brennan (GSK-Oxford Institute of Molecular & Computational Medicine)
Organiser contact email address: Kirkham@maths.ox.ac.uk
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editor: Nicola Kirkham