The mechanics of soft solids

Jan 1, 0001

Most of my work on elastic solids has been on constitutive equations, that is, mathematically describing the different components of a solid, and how these effect the forces and deformations. With the two main themes being stressed solids and fibre-reinforced solids. I have also explored how to use waves and instabilities to characterise solids.

Initially stressed solids

The driving question is how to mathematically describe the mechanical response of residually stressed solids? Our main contribution has been revealing a new symmetry, a result from conservation of energy, that restricts the possible mechanical responses.

This is what happens when you cut a residually stressed elastic rubber ball. The movement is powered by the release of the residual stress.
The arrows indicate the direction of the residual stress of a thick tube. The material is in equilibrium.
solid-mechanics elasticity initial-stress
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Artur L Gower
Lecturer in Dynamics

Art Gower is a lecturer at the University of Sheffield and part of the Dynamics group. He uses maths to understand waves (sound and light) in materials. Sometimes computers show him that his maths is wrong.

Related

Publications

An ultrasonic method to measure stress without calibration: The angled shear wave method

Measuring stress levels in loaded structures is crucial to assess and monitor structure health and to predict the length of remaining …
Project Project Paper Journal

The constitutive relations of initially stressed incompressible Mooney-Rivlin materials

Initial stresses originate in soft materials by the occurrence of misfits in the undeformed microstructure. Since the reference …
Project Paper Journal

A new restriction for initially stressed elastic solids

We introduce a fundamental restriction on the strain energy function and stress tensor for initially stressed elastic solids. The …
Preprint Project Paper Journal

Morphology of residually stressed tubular tissues: Beyond the elastic multiplicative decomposition

Many interesting shapes appearing in the biological world are formed by the onset of mechanical instability. In this work we consider …
Project Project Paper Journal

On residual stresses and homeostasis: an elastic theory of functional adaptation in living matter

Living matter can functionally adapt to external physical factors by developing internal tensions, easily revealed by cutting …
Project Paper Journal

Initial stress symmetry and its applications in elasticity

An initial stress within a solid can arise to support external loads or from processes such as thermal expansion in inert matter or …
Preprint Project Paper Journal

Connecting the material parameters of soft fibre-reinforced solids with the formation of surface wrinkles

There is a need for more complete models of fibre-reinforced solids that use two anisotropic invariants. However, these models present …
PDF Project Project Slides Paper