Matteo Pezzulla - Taming Fluid-Induced Instabilities in Slender Structures for Passive Valve Design

The efficient redistribution and control of flow is essential in many biological and engineered systems, from our cardiovascular system to plants and soft robotics. Inspired by nature, microfluidic devices with passive valves have been developed to perform a variety of tasks, from cell manipulation to fluid mixing and reaction control, giving rise to the field of soft hydraulics. In this talk, we present two prototypes of passive valves: one harnessing buckling in slender beams and another leveraging snapping in spherical shells, where fluid-induced elastic instabilities are tamed to achieve function. Through a combination of precision desktop-scale experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical analysis, we rationalize these behaviors and provide design rules based on scaling regimes of material, geometric, and fluid parameters.