Learning from an Eggshell

LU13685  - If you squeeze an eggshell along its major axis, the shell is strikingly rigid and it is extremely challenging to break it with our bare hands. Conversely, if the eggshell is compressed along its equator, the resulting deflections are larger and, past a critical load one is typically able to fracture it. In our paper, we have rationalized this difference in the rigidity of an eggshell depending on the shell-load orientation to be due to the local geometry near the points of indentation. We have introduced a predictive framework for the rigidity of thin elastic shells which can also account for the situation when the shell is over-pressurized. Our concept of Geometry-Induced Rigidity can be used in reverse, as a precision non-destructive tool, to measure parameters of a shell (e.g. thickness) upon knowing the geometry of the underlying surface and the local mechanical response. The scale-invariance of Geometry-Induced Rigidity suggests that our framework should find uses across length scales: from the mechanical testing of viral capsids through Atomic Force Microscopy, to ocular tonometry procedures or in the design of architectural shells. All this work was inspired by the remarkable physics of an elegant eggshell!