title: Swelling-induced deformations: a materials-defined transition from macroscale to microscale deformations.
abstract: Swelling-induced deformations are common in many biological and industrial environments, and the shapes and patterns that emerge can vary across many length scales. Here we present an experimental study of a transition between macroscopic structural bending and microscopic surface creasing in elastomeric beams swollen non-homogeneously with favorable . We show that this transition is dictated by the materials and geometry of the system, and we develop a simple scaling model based on competition between bending and swelling energies that predicts if a given droplet would deform a polymeric structure macroscopically or microscopically. We demonstrate how proper tuning of materials and geometry can generate instabilities at multiple length scales in a single structure.
authors.affiliation: Virginia Tech, Engineering Science and Mechanics, 222 Norris Hall, Blacksburg, VA, USA. dpholmes@vt.edu.
authors.forename: Anupam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.forename: Douglas P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Holmes