MEchanics GAthering –MEGA- Seminar: Harnessing buckling instabilities in accelerating rotating systems towards enhanced functionality
Event details
| Date | 30.11.2023 |
| Hour | 16:15 › 17:30 |
| Speaker | Eduardo Gutierrez Prieto (FLEXLAB, EPFL) |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract:
We investigate the geometrically nonlinear deformation and buckling of a slender elastic beam subject to time-dependent ‘fictitious’ (non-inertial) forces arising from unsteady rotation. Using a rotary apparatus that accurately imposes an angular acceleration around a fixed axis, we demonstrate that centrifugal and Euler forces can be combined to produce tunable structural deformation. Specifically, using an imposed acceleration ramp, the buckling onset of a cantilevered beam can be precisely tuned and its deformation direction selected. In a second configuration, a pre-arched beam can be made to snap, on demand, between its two stable states. We also formulate a theoretical model rooted in Euler’s elastica that rationalizes the problem and provides predictions in excellent quantitative agreement with the experimental data. Our findings demonstrate an innovative approach to programmable actuation of slender rotating structures.
Biography:
Eduardo Gutierrez-Prieto has been a Ph.D. student at fleXLab in EPFL since October 2021, focusing on the mechanics of slender structures subject to unsteady rotational loads, with an interest in developing versatile centrifugal microfluidics devices exploiting the non-inertial loads arising from unsteady rotation. He obtained his BSc in Mech. Eng. in his hometown in Spain, from the University of Valladolid. He then worked for about two years at SEADM, an R&D company, developing a sub-23nm particle counter based on droplet nucleation techniques to measure the emission of pollutant particles from burning fossil fuels. In this project, he stayed four months as an invited researcher in the APTL laboratory, based in Thessaloniki, Greece. In 2019 he joined TU Delft in the Netherlands to pursue an MSc in Mech. Eng., specializing in fluid mechanics. There, he focused on understanding how the beating of eukaryotic cilia naturally emerges from its structural composition, and the effects of hydro/mechanic coupling in ciliar synchronization. While in the Netherlands, he also worked as an intern for Bi/ond, a start-up developing versatile microfluidic chips for organoid research.
We investigate the geometrically nonlinear deformation and buckling of a slender elastic beam subject to time-dependent ‘fictitious’ (non-inertial) forces arising from unsteady rotation. Using a rotary apparatus that accurately imposes an angular acceleration around a fixed axis, we demonstrate that centrifugal and Euler forces can be combined to produce tunable structural deformation. Specifically, using an imposed acceleration ramp, the buckling onset of a cantilevered beam can be precisely tuned and its deformation direction selected. In a second configuration, a pre-arched beam can be made to snap, on demand, between its two stable states. We also formulate a theoretical model rooted in Euler’s elastica that rationalizes the problem and provides predictions in excellent quantitative agreement with the experimental data. Our findings demonstrate an innovative approach to programmable actuation of slender rotating structures.
Biography:
Eduardo Gutierrez-Prieto has been a Ph.D. student at fleXLab in EPFL since October 2021, focusing on the mechanics of slender structures subject to unsteady rotational loads, with an interest in developing versatile centrifugal microfluidics devices exploiting the non-inertial loads arising from unsteady rotation. He obtained his BSc in Mech. Eng. in his hometown in Spain, from the University of Valladolid. He then worked for about two years at SEADM, an R&D company, developing a sub-23nm particle counter based on droplet nucleation techniques to measure the emission of pollutant particles from burning fossil fuels. In this project, he stayed four months as an invited researcher in the APTL laboratory, based in Thessaloniki, Greece. In 2019 he joined TU Delft in the Netherlands to pursue an MSc in Mech. Eng., specializing in fluid mechanics. There, he focused on understanding how the beating of eukaryotic cilia naturally emerges from its structural composition, and the effects of hydro/mechanic coupling in ciliar synchronization. While in the Netherlands, he also worked as an intern for Bi/ond, a start-up developing versatile microfluidic chips for organoid research.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- MEGA.Seminar Organizing Committee