Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Pulling Membrane Nanotubes from Giant Unilamellar Vesicles
Published on: December 7, 2017
Stability of elastic icosadeltahedral shells under uniform external pressure: application to viruses under osmotic
Antonio Siber1, Rudolf Podgornik
1Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 304, 10001 Zagreb, Croatia. asiber@ifs.hr
Abstract:
We discuss the stability of icosadeltahedral shells subjected to a uniform external load in the form of an isotropic pressure. We demonstrate that there exists a universal critical buckling pressure scaling form that defines a locus of buckling instabilities. The parameter that uniquely determines this scaling form is shown to be the Föppl-von Karman number of nonpressurized shells. Numerical results are interpreted in terms of scaling forms for buckling instabilities of spheres and cylinders under isotropic mechanical pressure, and are applied to the case of viruses under osmotic pressure.
Related Concept Videos
Osmotic Pressure
Excess Pressure Inside a Drop and a Bubble
Entropy and Solvation
Stability of Equilibrium Configuration: Problem Solving
Problem-solving in the context of the stability of equilibrium configuration...
Generalized Hooke's Law
The Van der Waals Equation

