arXiv subjects

D. Riccobelli

Publications and source records attributed to D. Riccobelli.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Elastocapillary morphing of self-encapsulated droplets floating at the oil-air interface

Self-encapsulated droplets floating at an oil--air interface undergo striking shape changes during evaporation, including flattening and localized loss of membrane tension leading to crumpling and wrinkling. Here we combine experiments, modeling and simulations to obtain predictive morphological maps. We perform contact-angle and evaporation experiments on water droplets coated by a hydrophobin protein film and floating in a fluorinated oil, providing reference profiles and volume-loss sequences for quantitative validation. We develop an axisymmetric mechanics framework in which equilibria follow from minimization of a total free energy combining surface energies, membrane strain energy and gravitational potential, subject to volume and contact-line constraints. A quasi-convex tension-relaxation rule accounts for compression-free states and enables coexistence of taut, wrinkled (one principal tension vanishes) and crumpled (both vanish) membrane domains. A finite element algorithm computes quasi-static morphing under volume reduction; key parameters are identified by fitting the reference contact-angle profile and then used without further tuning. The model reproduces the experimentally observed shape evolution and resolves the associated stress redistribution. Systematic parameter scans yield morphological phase diagrams governed by the Bond number, the oil--droplet surface-tension ratio and the density ratio. For buoyant droplets, crumpling relocates between exposed and submerged caps as parameters vary; for heavy droplets, a crossover to circumferential wrinkling along the immersed sidewall emerges. Wall-meniscus variations shift phase boundaries and can suppress bottom crumpling, consistent with wall-affected experiments.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2025

Elastic Plateau-Rayleigh instability in soft cylinders: Surface elasticity and periodic beading

The Plateau-Rayleigh instability shows that a cylindrical fluid flow can be destabilized by surface tension. Similarly, capillary forces can make an elastic cylinder unstable when the elastocapillary length is comparable to the cylinder's radius. While existing models predict a single isolated bulge as the result of an instability, experiments reveal a periodic sequence of bulges spaced out by thinned regions, a phenomenon known as beading instability. Most models assume that surface tension is independent of the deformation of the solid, neglecting variations due to surface stretch. In this work, we assume that surface tension arises from the deformation of material particles near the free surface, treating it as a pre-stretched elastic surface surrounding the body. Using the theoretical framework proposed by Gurtin and Murdoch, we show that a cylindrical solid can undergo a mechanical instability with a finite critical wavelength if the body is sufficiently soft or axially stretched. Post-buckling numerical simulations reveal a morphology in qualitative agreement with experimental observations. Period-halving secondary bifurcations are also observed. The results of this research have broad implications for soft materials, biomechanics, and microfabrication applications where surface tension plays a crucial role.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2025

Patient-specific prediction of glioblastoma growth via reduced order modeling and neural networks

Glioblastoma is among the most aggressive brain tumors in adults, characterized by patient-specific invasion patterns driven by the underlying brain microstructure. In this work, we present a proof-of-concept for a mathematical model of GBL growth, enabling real-time prediction and patient-specific parameter identification from longitudinal neuroimaging data. The framework exploits a diffuse-interface mathematical model to describe the tumor evolution and a reduced-order modeling strategy, relying on proper orthogonal decomposition, trained on synthetic data derived from patient-specific brain anatomies reconstructed from magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging. A neural network surrogate learns the inverse mapping from tumor evolution to model parameters, achieving significant computational speed-up while preserving high accuracy. To ensure robustness and interpretability, we perform both global and local sensitivity analyses, identifying the key biophysical parameters governing tumor dynamics and assessing the stability of the inverse problem solution. These results establish a methodological foundation for future clinical deployment of patient-specific digital twins in neuro-oncology.

eess.IV↗

arXiv2025

Surface tension-driven boundary growth in tumour spheroids

Growing experimental evidence highlights the relevant role of mechanics in the physiology of solid tumours, even in their early stages. While most of the mathematical models describe tumour growth as a volumetric increase of mass in the bulk, in vitro experiments on tumour spheroids have demonstrated that cell proliferation occurs in a thin layer at the boundary of the cellular aggregate. In this work, we investigate how elasticity and surface tension interact during the development of tumour spheroids. We model the spheroid as a hyperelastic material undergoing boundary accretion, where the newly created cells are deformed by the action of surface tension. This growth leads to a frustrated reference configuration, resulting in the appearance of residual stress. Our theoretical framework is validated using experimental results from the literature. Like fully developed tumours, spheroids open when subjected to radial cuts. Remarkably, this behaviour is observed even in newly formed spheroids, which lack residual stress. Through both analytical solutions and numerical simulations, we show that this phenomenon is driven by elastocapillary interactions, where the residual stress developed in grown spheroids amplifies the tumour opening. Our model's outcomes align with experimental observations and allow us to estimate the surface tension acting on tumour spheroids.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2024

Modelling of initially stressed solids: structure of the energy density in the incompressible limit

This study addresses the modelling of elastic bodies, particularly when the relaxed configuration is unknown or non-existent. We adopt the theory of initially stressed materials, incorporating the deformation gradient and stress state of the reference configuration (initial stress tensor) into the response function. We show that for the theory to be applicable, the response function of the relaxed material is invertible up to an element of the material symmetry group. Additionally, we establish that commonly imposed constitutive restrictions, namely the initial stress compatibility condition and initial stress reference independence, naturally arise when assuming the initial stress is generated solely from elastic distortion. The paper delves into modelling aspects concerning incompressible materials, showcasing the expressibility of strain energy density as a function of the deviatoric part of the initial stress tensor and the isochoric part of the deformation gradient. This not only reduces the number of independent invariants in the energy functional, but also enhances numerical robustness in finite element simulations. The findings of this research hold significant implications for modelling materials with initial stress, extending potential applications to areas such as mechanobiology, soft robotics, and 4D printing.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2024

Elastic instability behind brittle fracture

We argue that nucleation of brittle cracks in initially flawless soft elastic solids is preceded by a nonlinear elastic instability, which cannot be captured without accounting for geometrical precise description of finite elastic deformation. As a prototypical problem we consider a homogeneous elastic body subjected to tension and assume that it is weakened by the presence of a free surface which then serves as a site of crack nucleation. We show that in this maximally simplified setting, brittle fracture emerges from a symmetry breaking elastic instability activated by softening and involving large elastic rotations. The implied bifurcation of the homogeneous elastic equilibrium is highly unconventional for nonlinear elasticity as it exhibits an extraordinary sensitivity to geometry, reminiscent of the transition to turbulence in fluids. We trace the post-bifurcational development of this instability beyond the limits of applicability of scale free continuum elasticity and use a phase-field approach to capture the scale dependent sub-continuum strain localization, signaling the formation of actual cracks.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2024

Reconstructing relaxed configurations in elastic bodies: Mathematical formulations and numerical methods for cardiac modeling

Modeling the behavior of biological tissues and organs often necessitates the knowledge of their shape in the absence of external loads. However, when their geometry is acquired in-vivo through imaging techniques, bodies are typically subject to mechanical deformation due to the presence of external forces, and the load-free configuration needs to be reconstructed. This paper addresses this crucial and frequently overlooked topic, known as the inverse elasticity problem (IEP), by delving into both theoretical and numerical aspects, with a particular focus on cardiac mechanics. In this work, we extend Shield's seminal work to determine the structure of the IEP with arbitrary material inhomogeneities and in the presence of both body and active forces. These aspects are fundamental in computational cardiology, and we show that they may break the variational structure of the inverse problem. In addition, we show that the inverse problem might have no solution even in the presence of constant Neumann boundary conditions and a polyconvex strain energy functional. We then present the results of extensive numerical tests to validate our theoretical framework, and to characterize the computational challenges associated with a direct numerical approximation of the IEP. Specifically, we show that this framework outperforms existing approaches both in terms of robustness and optimality, such as Sellier's iterative procedure, even when the latter is improved with acceleration techniques. A notable discovery is that multigrid preconditioners are, in contrast to standard elasticity, not efficient, where a one-level additive Schwarz and generalized Dryja-Smith-Widlund provide a much more reliable alternative. Finally, we successfully address the IEP for a full-heart geometry, demonstrating that the IEP formulation can compute the stress-free configuration in real-life scenarios.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2022

The Föppl-von Kármán equations of elastic plates with initial stress

Initially stressed plates are widely used in modern fabrication techniques, such as additive manufacturing and UV lithography, for their tunable morphology by application of external stimuli. In this work, we propose a formal asymptotic derivation of the Föppl-von Kármán equations for an elastic plate with initial stresses, using the constitutive theory of nonlinear elastic solids with initial stresses under the assumptions of incompressibility and material isotropy. Compared to existing works, our approach allows to determine the morphological transitions of the elastic plate without prescribing the underlying target metric of the unstressed state of the elastic body. We explicitly solve the derived FvK equations in some physical problems of engineering interest, discussing how the initial stress distribution drives the emergence of spontaneous curvatures within the deformed plate. The proposed mathematical framework can be used to tailor shape on demand, with applications in several engineering fields ranging from soft robotics to 4D printing.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2020

Mechanics of axisymmetric sheets of interlocking and slidable rods

In this work, we study the mechanics of metamaterial sheets inspired by the pellicle of Euglenids. They are composed of interlocking elastic rods which can freely slide along their edges. We characterize the kinematics and the mechanics of these structures using the special Cosserat theory of rods and by assuming axisymmetric deformations of the tubular assembly. Through an asymptotic expansion, we investigate both structures that comprise a discrete number of rods and the limit case of a sheet composed by infinitely many rods. We apply our theoretical framework to investigate the stability of these structures in the presence of an axial load. Through a linear analysis, we compute the critical buckling force for both the discrete and the continuous case. For the latter, we also perform a numerical post-buckling analysis, studying the non-linear evolution of the bifurcation through finite elements simulations.

cond-mat.soft↗