By calculating the electronic, orbital, magnetic, and lattice structure of half-doped manganites we establish the central role of oxygen buckling caused by the tilting of the MnO6 octahedra, which is, in essence, a steric effect. The buckling itself does not change the Mn-Mn bonds. Instead, it drives the system toward an instability where these bonds can dimerize. In the presence of electron-el...

When stretched uniaxially, a thin elastic sheet may exhibit buckling. The occurrence of buckling depends on the geometrical properties of the sheet and the magnitude of the applied strain. Here we show that an elastomeric sheet initially stable under uniaxial stretching can destabilize when exposed to a solvent that swells the elastomer. We demonstrate experimentally and computationally that th...

We study the nonlinear deformations of a long rectangular elastic plate clamped along its edges and submitted to in-plane biaxial compression. Using the Föppl–von Kármán equations, we predict various secondary buckling modes according to the applied longitudinal and transverse compressions. A model experiment is carried out in a thin polycarbonate film, and the observed buckling patterns are fo...

Time-dependent buckling phenomena of polysilicon micro beams have been demonstrated and reported. These beams are suspended 2 mm above the silicon substrate with dimensions of 100 mm (length) × 2 mm (width) × 2 mm (thickness). When a constant input current is supplied at or above a threshold value, electro-thermally induced buckling occurs. It is observed and recorded that the beams exhibit tim...

In this paper, the compressive behavior of composite laminates with multiple through-the-width delaminations is investigated analytically. The analytical method is based on the CLPT theory and its formulation is developed on the basis of the Rayleigh-Ritz approximation technique to analyze the buckling and post-buckling behavior of the delaminated laminates. The method can handle both local buc...

In this paper, the modified Euler-Bernoulli beam model is presented to examine the influence of surface elasticity and residual surface tension on the critical force of axial buckling of nanotubes in the presence of rotary inertia. An explicit solution is derived for the buckling loads of microscaled Euler beams considering surface effects. The size-dependent buckling behavior of the nanotube d...

In this work, closed-form expressions for the buckling loads of weakened Timoshenko columns with different boundary conditions and shear force approaches (proportional to the bending rotation or to the total slope) are presented. The crack model used promotes discontinuities in both transversal displacements and rotation due to bending. To solve the buckling problem, the perturbationmethod is u...

Bioinspired soft machines made of highly deformable materials are enabling a variety of innovative applications, yet their locomotion typically requires several actuators that are independently activated. We harnessed kirigami principles to significantly enhance the crawling capability of a soft actuator. We designed highly stretchable kirigami surfaces in which mechanical instabilities induce ...