Basile Radisson (ULB) : Shape transitions in elastic beams

Many elastic structures exhibit rapid shape transitions between two possible equilibrium states: umbrellas become inverted in strong wind and hopper popper toys jump when turned inside out. This snap-through is a general motif for the storage and rapid release of elastic energy, and it is exploited by many biological and engineered systems from the Venus flytrap to mechanical metamaterials.

During this seminar I will use elastic beam model experiments to realize different snap-through instabilities that are reminiscent of instabilities observed in more intricate elastic structures and I will present recent numerical and theoretical work that shows that all the dynamic characteristics of these transitions can be predicted from symmetry considerations.