CAREER: Understanding and Controlling the Deformation of Thin Rods within Soft and Fragile Matter

从该教师早期职业发展（职业）计划赠款中汲取的经验教训将为细棒在软而脆的物质（例如粒状材料和组织）内的主动导航提供框架。可以根据命令弯曲和折叠的活性材料为可部署结构、智能针和软机械臂提供了先进的工程机会。该奖项支持复杂材料中细杆力学的基础研究，并将提供创建先进的自主结构所需的知识，该结构能够主动绕过各种介质中的障碍物。为了协助更广泛地传播力学，该奖项支持开发一项创新计划，通过利用在线数字媒体向全球社区展示力学知识，重点关注数字灵感、交流和教育 (DICE)，从而提高科学交流和素养。通过强调视觉、口头和书面交流，该计划将增强下一代学者的科学交流，并通过开放的在线力学内容的创建和管理扩大公众的参与。引导结构穿过组织和颗粒介质等柔软而脆弱的物质，需要了解细长结构的力学、刺激响应结构的变形以及变形结构​​与其周围介质之间相互作用产生的力。该奖项将有助于更好地理解细长结构在复杂介质中如何变形。首先，将建立定量实验关系来描述被动弹性条在各种环境（包括干、湿和软颗粒物质和水凝胶）内的弯曲、屈曲和界面渗透。对于每种介质，这将有助于了解将结构弯曲到特定曲率所需的刺激强度。然后，刺激响应微结构将被纳入弹性条带中，使其能够响应气动压力而弯曲和卷曲。这项工作的实验结果将为重要的理论研究提供基础，这些理论研究将孔隙弹性、颗粒干扰和细长结构的力学结合起来，同时激发先进的刺激响应结构。该奖项的结果将有助于预测复杂介质中细长结构的变形和屈曲，同时为设计可以在柔软和脆弱的物质中主动可控弯曲的结构提供通用框架。

The lessons learned from this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program grant will provide the framework for the active navigation of thin rods within soft and fragile matter, such as granular materials and tissue. Active materials that can bend and fold on command provide advanced engineering opportunities for deployable structures, smart needles, and soft robotic arms. This award supports fundamental research on the mechanics of thin rods in complex materials, and will provide the knowledge necessary to create advanced, autonomous structures capable of actively navigating around obstacles in various media. To assist in the broader dissemination of mechanics, this award supports the development of an innovative program to improve scientific communication and literacy by utilizing online digital media to showcase mechanics knowledge to the global community by focusing on Digital Inspiration, Communication, and Education (DICE). By placing an emphasis on visual, verbal, and written communication, this program will enhance both the scientific communication of the next generation of scholars and broaden participation of the general public through the creation and curation of open, online mechanics content. Steering a structure through soft and fragile matter, such as tissues and granular media, requires understanding the mechanics of slender structures, the deformation of stimuli-responsive structures and the forces that arise from the interplay between the deforming structure and its surrounding media. This award will lead to a better understanding of how a slender structure deforms within a complex medium. First, a quantitative experimental relationship will be developed to describe the bending, buckling, and interfacial penetration of a passive elastic strip within various surroundings, including dry, wet, and soft granular matter and hydrogels. For each medium, this will provide an understanding of the magnitude of stimulus required to bend a structure to a specific curvature. Stimuli-responsive microstructures will then be incorporated into the elastic strip, enabling it to bend and curl in response to pneumatic pressure. The experimental results from this work will provide the basis for important theoretical studies that couple poroelasticity, granular jamming, and the mechanics of slender structures while inspiring advanced, stimuli-responsive structures. The results of this award will help predict the deformation and buckling of slender structures within complex media, while providing a general framework for designing structures that can actively and controllably bend within soft and fragile matter.