Imperfection sensitivity of column instability revisited

Imperfection-sensitivity and Catastrophe Theory

From wrinkles to creases in elastomers: the instability and imperfection-sensitivity of wrinkling

The stability of the wrinkling mode experienced by a compressed half-space of neo-Hookean material is investigated using analytical and numerical methods to study the post-bifurcation behaviour of periodic solutions. It is shown that wrinkling is highly unstable owing to the nonlinear interaction among the multiple modes associated with the critical compressive state. Concomitantly, wrinkling i...

The tallest column — optimality revisited

The problem of the optimal design of the tallest unloaded column under selfweight is revisited with a view towards clarifying the optimality of the design proposed by Keller and Niordson (The Tallest Column, J. Math. Mech. 16 (1966), pp. 433–446). The height of the tallest column is related to the rst eigenvalue of a Sturm–Liouville operator. Since the operator associated with the Keller–Niords...

Genome instability: McClintock revisited

Recent studies in yeast have shed light on the molecular mechanisms by which telomere dysfunction leads to chromosome fusions. Furthermore, examination of the consequences of telomerase loss in mice suggests that only a few critically short telomeres may be sufficient to promote genomic instability.

A semi-analytical approach to Biot instability in a growing layer: strain gradient correction, weakly nonlinear analysis and imperfection sensitivity

Many experimental works have recently investigated the dynamics of crease formation during the swelling of long soft slabs attached to a rigid substrate. Mechanically, the spatially constrained growth provokes a residual strain distribution inside the material, and therefore the problem is equivalent to the uniaxial compression of ∗Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] 1 an ...