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Prescribed Pattern Transformation in Swelling Gel Tubes by Elastic Instability

Howon Lee, Jiaping Zhang, Hanqing Jiang, and Nicholas X. Fang
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 214304 – Published 25 May 2012
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Abstract

We present a study on swelling-induced circumferential buckling of tubular shaped gels. Inhomogeneous stress develops as the gel swells under mechanical constraints, which gives rise to spontaneous buckling instability without an external force. Full control over the postbuckling pattern is experimentally demonstrated. A simple analytical model is developed using elastic energy to predict stability and postbuckling patterns upon swelling. Analysis reveals that the height to diameter ratio is the most critical design parameter to determine the buckling pattern, which agrees well with experimental and numerical results.

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  • Received 8 February 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.214304

© 2012 American Physical Society

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How to Make Soft, Wavy Structures

Published 25 May 2012

A process for making wavy tubes in a controlled way could lead to the predictable fabrication of complex shapes.

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Authors & Affiliations

Howon Lee1, Jiaping Zhang2, Hanqing Jiang2, and Nicholas X. Fang1

  • 1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  • 2School for Engineering of Matter, Transport, and Energy, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA

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Issue

Vol. 108, Iss. 21 — 25 May 2012

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