We report the observation of a Plateau instability in a thin filament of solid gel with a very small elastic modulus. A longitudinal undulation of the surface of the cylinder reduces its area thereby triggering capillary instability, but is counterbalanced by elastic forces following the deformation. This competition leads to a nontrivial instability threshold for a solid cylinder. The ratio of surface tension to elastic modulus defines a characteristic length scale. The onset of linear instability is when the radius of the cylinder is one-sixth of this length scale, in agreement with theory.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 214301 (2010)

Under the effect of surface tension, a blob of liquid adopts a spherical shape when immersed in another fluid. We demonstrate experimentally that soft, centimeter-size elastic solids can exhibit a similar behavior: when immersed into a liquid, a gel having a low elastic modulus undergoes large, reversible deformations. We analyze three fundamental types of deformations of a slender elastic solid driven by surface stress, depending on the shape of its cross section: a circular elastic cylinder shortens in the longitudinal direction and stretches transversally; the sharp edges of a square based prism get rounded off as its cross sections tend to become circular; and a slender, triangular based prism bends. These experimental results are compared to analysis and nonlinear simulations of neo-Hookean solids deformed by surface tension and are found to be in good agreement with each other.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 114301 (2013)

Surface tension tends to minimize the area of interfaces between pieces of matter in different thermodynamic phases, be they in the solid or the liquid state. This can be relevant for the macroscopic shape of very soft solids and lead to a roughening of initially sharp edges. We calculate this effect for a Neo-Hookean elastic solid, with assumptions corresponding to actual experiments, namely the case where an initially sharp edge is rounded by the effect of surface tension felt when the fluid surrounding the soft solid (and so surface tension) is changed at the solid/liquid boundary. We consider two opposite limits where the analysis can be carried to the end, the one of a shallow angle and the one of a very sharp angle. Both cases yield a discontinuity of curvature in the state with surface tension although the initial state had a discontinuous slope.

Journal of Physics: Cond. Matt. vol 27, 194112 (2015)