Capillary control of collapse in soft composite columns

• Euler buckling is the elastic instability of a column subjected to longitudinal compression forces at its ends. The buckling instability occurs when the compressing load reaches a critical value, and an infinitesimal fluctuation leads to a large amplitude deflection. Since Euler's original study, this process has been extensively examined in homogeneous, isotropic, linear-elastic solids. Here, we examine the nature of the buckling in inhomogeneous soft composite materials. In particular, we consider a soft host with liquid inclusions both large and small relative to the elastocapillarity length, which lead to softening and stiffening, respectively, of a homogeneous composite. However, by imposing a gradient of the inclusion volume fraction or by varying the inclusion size we can deliberately manipulate the spatial structure of the composite properties of a column and thereby control the nature of Euler buckling.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Bending

Capillary interactions

Elastic deformation

Elastic forces

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)