Mechanics and geometry of soft beams and shells

We investigate swelling-induced morphing in thin soft polymer based plates and shells. Starting from flat geometries, sphere-like and nearly developable shapes are realized and the ability to control a specific shaping, shifting from one shape to another, under anisotropic swelling is investigated. Starting from nearly developable shapes, the effects on the geometry of swelling and shrinking is also studied. The mathematical model accounts for both diffusion and nonlinear mechanics (stress-diffusion model). It is implemented in a finite element code and a campaign of numerical experiments is planned.
Reduced analytical or semi-analytical approaches will be used to catch the experimental results above.