Speaker
Marc Suné
(Nordita)
Description
Since Euler’s original study, the buckling instability of a column subjected to longitudinal compression forces has been extensively studied in homogeneous, isotropic, linear–elastic solids. In our work 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 of a homogeneous composite respectively. 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.
