Some surprises in elastic snap-through
Dominic VELLA
University of Oxford
Elastic snap-through is familiar from everyday life; whether it’s the rapid inversion of an umbrella or the pop of a hair clip, we are familiar with the idea that some elastic objects have two equilibrium states and can be forced to ‘snap’ between them with a suitable load. These examples generally suggest that the motion occurs quickly, but trying to estimate this speed brings some surprises: if anything, the motion should happen *faster* than is typically observed. We show that this ’slow’ snap-through occurs even without any viscous dissipation and gives a new route to control the state and behaviour of an elastic system using the rate of loading.
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CONFÉRENCES
2nd European Fluid Dynamics Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 26 Août 2025