Solid Capillarity: when surface properties dominate the mechanics of soft solids
Event details
| Date | 07.11.2016 |
| Hour | 13:15 › 14:15 |
| Speaker |
Prof. Eric R. Dufresne, Department of Materials - ETH Zürich Bio: Eric Dufresne is a leading international scientist in the area of soft materials. His research focuses on understanding, controlling and exploiting the structure and dynamics of soft materials. These include the bulk of living tissues, as well as diverse engineered materials, from personal care products to energy-efficient electronic-paper displays. |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Soft materials are the stuff of life, and of emerging technologies like wearable electronics and soft robotics. While material deformation is an essential part of these examples, the classic theories of solid mechanics were developed to describe much stiffer materials. Our experiments show that these classic results fail to describe deformation of soft solids at small length scales. In this limit, we see qualitative changes to the interfacial phenomena of adhesion and wetting, as well as dramatic effects on the mechanics of soft composites.
We are able to capture the essential features of these phenomena with linear-elastic analytic models that incorporate solid surface tension. Intriguingly, the apparent surface tension in these phenomena is larger than the expected surface energy. I will describe current experiments targeted at illuminating this discrepancy
We are able to capture the essential features of these phenomena with linear-elastic analytic models that incorporate solid surface tension. Intriguingly, the apparent surface tension in these phenomena is larger than the expected surface energy. I will describe current experiments targeted at illuminating this discrepancy
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Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Fabien Sorin and Michele Ceriotti
Contact
- Fabien Sorin and Michele Ceriotti