Ref HAL: hal-00842852_v2
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.114301
WoS: 000324233400011
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66 Citations
Résumé:

Under the effect of surface tension a blob of liquid adopts a spherical shape when immersed in another fluid. We demonstrate experimentally that soft, centimeter-size elastic solids can exhibit a similar behavior: when immersed into a liquid, a gel having a low elastic modulus undergoes large, reversible deformations. We analyze three fundamental types of deformations of a slender elastic solid driven by surface stress, depending on the shape of its cross-section: a circular elastic cylinder shortens in the longitudinal direction and stretches transversally; the sharp edges of a square based prism get rounded off as its cross-sections tend to become circular; a slender, triangular based prism bends. These experimental results are compared to analysis and non-linear simulations of neo-Hookean solids deformed by surface tension, and are found to be in good agreement with each other.