Category: MOSS Lab
BU Video: Slender Structures
What can we learn from the physics of a slinky? How these materials are inspiring engineers to embrace instability for advanced function. pic.twitter.com/mTcFHwIxnS
— Boston University (@BU_Tweets) September 6, 2017
Among most downloaded articles in Extreme Mechanics Letters
Our paper "Buckling of elastic beams embedded in granular media" was among the top 5 most downloaded paper's in Elsevier's Extreme Mechanics Letters in 2016:
MSE Innovation Grant Winner
The MOSS lab was one of six MSE Innovation Grant Winners from the Materials Science Division at Boston University in 2017.
Science360: MOSS@BU
Science360 is highlighting some research from the Mechanics of Slender Structures lab at BU:
https://science360.gov/obj/video/7d008e3b-f075-4d6d-bd84-2b6433b1658f/mechanics-slender-structures
BU ENG: Elastocapillary Swelling
How the Baobab tree inspires swelling and morphing structures: https://t.co/CxDGtHFnUb - thanks to @SaraCody
— Douglas Holmes (@dpholmes) July 1, 2016
Read more at: http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/news-cms/news/?dept=666&id=63141
Twitter: Elastocapillary Swelling
What happens when you dip two rubber beams into a bath of oil? Something very bizarre... https://t.co/PRCuCOW6XH pic.twitter.com/JJpjI4mgqF
— Douglas Holmes (@dpholmes) June 1, 2016
Faculty Profile: Douglas Holmes
A faculty profile of Douglas Holmes, written by Rachel Riley, for BU's Department of Mechanical Engineering: http://www.bu.edu/me/faculty-profile-douglas-holmes/
Congratulations: Gabriel Smith – Scientific Image Contest
Gabriel Smith, a LEAP student in ME@BU working in the MOSS lab won third place in the 2015 Mechanical Engineering Scientific Image Contest.
Paper: Growing Sheets into Shells in Soft Matter
Our manuscript entitled “Morphing of geometric composites via residual swelling” has been published in the Soft Matter. This work was authored by Matteo Pezzulla, and co-authored by Steven Shillig, Paola Nardinocchi, and Douglas Holmes.
This work was also highlighted on Soft Matter's inside cover:
Understanding and controlling the shape of thin, soft objects has been the focus of significant research efforts among physicists, biologists, and engineers in the last decade. These studies aim to utilize advanced materials in novel, adaptive ways such as fabricating smart actuators or mimicking living tissues. Here, we present the controlled growth-like morphing of 2D sheets into 3D shapes by preparing geometric composite structures that deform by residual swelling. The morphing of these geometric composites is dictated by both swelling and geometry, with diffusion controlling the swelling-induced actuation, and geometric confinement dictating the structure’s deformed shape. Building on a simple mechanical analog, we present an analytical model that quantitatively describes how the Gaussian and mean curvatures of a thin disk are affected by the interplay among geometry, mechanics, and swelling. This model is in excellent agreement with our experiments and numerics. We show that the dynamics of residual swelling is dictated by a competition between two characteristic diffusive length scales governed by geometry. Our results provide the first 2D analog of Timoshenko’s classical formula for the thermal bending of bimetallic beams – our generalization explains how the Gaussian curvature of a 2D geometric composite is affected by geometry and elasticity. The understanding conferred by these results suggests that the controlled shaping of geometric composites may provide a simple complement to traditional manufacturing techniques.
Our latest paper on growing sheets into shells was published in @softmatter (http://t.co/IxekMNma84). Made the inside cover too! #NSFfunded
— Douglas Holmes (@dpholmes) July 17, 2015
