Periodic training of creeping solids.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Nonlinear Dynamics

Background:

• Disordered solids exhibit complex mechanical behaviors due to microscopic element plasticity.
• Controlling elastic properties in these materials, especially at large strains, is challenging.
• Existing design methods struggle in the nonlinear regime where plasticity dominates.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the use of periodic driving to control elastic properties in disordered solids.
• To explore the exploitation of material plasticity for tunable mechanical responses.
• To demonstrate control over both global moduli and local allosteric interactions.

Main Methods:

• Applying periodic driving to disordered solid systems.
• Analyzing the energy landscape and strain coupling during periodic driving.
• Characterizing the resulting elastic properties, including global and local interactions.

Main Results:

• Periodic driving successfully trains specific elastic properties into disordered solids.
• The method allows precise control over global elastic moduli.
• Local 'allosteric' interactions can also be tuned, demonstrating fine-grained control.
• Effective control is achieved even at large strains within the nonlinear regime.

Conclusions:

• Periodic driving offers a novel approach to engineer the mechanical properties of disordered solids.
• Exploiting plasticity through periodic excitation provides a powerful tool for materials design.
• This technique enables predictable control over complex material responses in the nonlinear regime.