Characterization of spatiotemporal deformation dynamics and material properties requires non-destructive methods to visualize mechanics of materials and biological tissues. Displacement-encoded magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has emerged as a noninvasive and non-destructive technique used to quantify deformation and strains. However, the techniques are not yet applicable to a broad range of ma...

The aim of the present study is the prediction of critical conditions (including critical strain and flow stress) for the initiation of dynamic recrystallization during thermo-mechanical processing of plain carbon steels. For this propose, torsion tests were conducted at different temperature (1050, 1100 and 1150˚C) and strain rates (0.002, 0.02 and 0.2/s). All flow curves showed a peak st...

Phospholipid vesicles are common model systems for cell membranes. Important aspects of the membrane function relate to its mechanical properties. Here we have investigated the deformation behaviour of phospholipid vesicles in a dual-beam laser trap, also called an optical stretcher. This study explicitly makes use of the inherent heating present in such traps to investigate the dependence of v...

The tight coupling between the plasma membrane and actin cortex allows cells to rapidly change shape in response to mechanical cues and during physiological processes. Mechanical properties of the membrane are critical for organizing the actin cortex, which ultimately governs the conversion of mechanical information into signaling. The cortex has been shown to rapidly remodel on timescales of s...

Besides experimental methods, numerical simulations bring benefits and great opportunities to characterize and predict mechanical behaviors of materials especially at nanoscale. In this study, a nano-single crystal aluminum (Al) as a typical face centered cubic (FCC) metal was modeled based on molecular dynamics (MD) method and by applying tensile and compressive strain loadings its mechanical ...

We study, experimentally and theoretically, the mechanical response of sheet materials on which line cracks or cuts are arranged in a simple pattern. Such sheet materials, often called kirigami (the Japanese words, kiri and gami, stand for cut and paper, respectively), demonstrate a unique mechanical response promising for various engineering applications such as stretchable batteries: kirigami...

Mechanical signals are critical to the development and maintenance of skeletal muscle, but the mechanisms that convert these shape changes to biochemical signals is not known. When a deformation is imposed on a muscle, changes in cellular and molecular conformations link the mechanical forces with biochemical signals, and the close integration of mechanical signals with electrical, metabolic, a...

Cells experience plasma membrane stress failure when the matrix to which they adhere undergoes large deformations. In the lung, such a mechanism might explain mechanical ventilation-associated cell injury. We have previously shown that in alveolar epithelial cells, deformation induces lipid trafficking to the plasma membrane, thereby accommodating the required increase in the cell surface area....

Widely used as insulators, capacitors, and transducers in daily life, soft dielectrics based on polymers and polymeric gels play important roles in modern electrified society. Owning to their mechanical compliance, soft dielectrics subject to voltages frequently undergo large deformation and mechanical instabilities. The deformation and instabilities can lead to detrimental failures in some app...

Living tissues undergo deformation during morphogenesis. In this process, cells generate mechanical forces that drive the coordinated cell motion and shape changes. Recent advances in experimental and theoretical techniques have enabled in situ measurement of the mechanical forces, but the characterization of mechanical properties that determine how these forces quantitatively affect tissue def...