Magneto-active elastic shells with tunable buckling strength

Dong Yan, Matteo Pezzulla, Lilian Cruveiller, Arefeh Abbasi and Pedro M. Reis ()
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Dong Yan: Flexible Structures Laboratory, Institute of Mechanical Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Matteo Pezzulla: Flexible Structures Laboratory, Institute of Mechanical Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Lilian Cruveiller: Flexible Structures Laboratory, Institute of Mechanical Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Arefeh Abbasi: Flexible Structures Laboratory, Institute of Mechanical Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Pedro M. Reis: Flexible Structures Laboratory, Institute of Mechanical Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Shell buckling is central in many biological structures and advanced functional materials, even if, traditionally, this elastic instability has been regarded as a catastrophic phenomenon to be avoided for engineering structures. Either way, predicting critical buckling conditions remains a long-standing challenge. The subcritical nature of shell buckling imparts extreme sensitivity to material and geometric imperfections. Consequently, measured critical loads are inevitably lower than classic theoretical predictions. Here, we present a robust mechanism to dynamically tune the buckling strength of shells, exploiting the coupling between mechanics and magnetism. Our experiments on pressurized spherical shells made of a hard-magnetic elastomer demonstrate the tunability of their buckling pressure via magnetic actuation. We develop a theoretical model for thin magnetic elastic shells, which rationalizes the underlying mechanism, in excellent agreement with experiments. A dimensionless magneto-elastic buckling number is recognized as the key governing parameter, combining the geometric, mechanical, and magnetic properties of the system.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22776-y

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