Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 23: Complex Fluids and Soft Matter (joint session DY/CPP)
DY 23.5: Talk
Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 10:30–10:45, ZEU/0160
Nonlinear Viscoelastic Response and Stress Shielding in Driven Bistable Spring Chains — •Sven Pattloch1,2 and Joachim Dzubiella1,2 — 1Applied Theoretical Physics-Computational Physics, Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany. — 2Cluster of Excellence livMatS@FIT-Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, D-79110 Freiburg, Germany
Bistable micromodules are a promising route to design adaptive mechanical metamaterials with tunable viscoelastic response. Here, a driven one-dimensional chain of bistable springs is studied in which both the mechanical deformation and the internal excitation states evolve dynamically under time-dependent forcing. Their coupling produces rich nonlinear viscoelastic behaviour, including frequency-dependent susceptibilities, delayed deformation, and pronounced hysteresis in cyclic loading.
Using analytical linear response theory complemented by numerical simulations, the model quantifies how microscopic parameters and driving protocols control effective stiffness, loss, and phase lags. A key result is a strong attenuation (‘shielding’) of stress propagation along the chain that is already present for monostable springs but is markedly amplified by excitation switching in bistable modules. These findings provide simple design principles for tailoring nonlinear viscoelasticity, hysteresis, and stress shielding in driven soft matter and mechanical metamaterial systems.
Keywords: Bistable springs; Nonlinear response; Frequency-dependent susceptibilty; Stress shielding; Adaptive Metamaterials