Abstract
Superparamagnetic nanoparticles incorporated into elastic media offer the possibility of creating actuators driven by external fields in a multitude of environments. Here, magnetoelastic membranes are studied through a combination of continuum mechanics and molecular dynamics simulations. We show how induced magnetic interactions affect the buckling and the configuration of magnetoelastic membranes in rapidly precessing magnetic fields. The field, in competition with the bending and stretching of the membrane, transmits forces and torques that drives the membrane to expand, contract, or twist. We identify critical field values that induce spontaneous symmetry breaking as well as field regimes where multiple membrane configurations may be observed. Our insights into buckling mechanisms provide the bases to develop soft, autonomous robotic systems that can be used at micro- and macroscopic length scales.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2500-2505 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| Volume | 116 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 12 2019 |
Funding
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. This work was supported as part of the Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award DE-SC0000989. M.T. acknowledges financial support from Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology Contract IF/00322/2015. P.A.V.-M. acknowledges support from Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tec-nología Grant Fondo Institucional de Fomento Regional para el Desarrollo Científico, Tecnológico y de Innovación (FORDECYT) 265667.
Keywords
- Finite element analysis
- Membranes
- Molecular dynamics
- Spontaneous symmetry breaking
- Superparamagnetism
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General