Periodic training of creeping solids

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that periodic driving of disordered solids with plastic elements can be used to train and control their elastic and allosteric responses, even in nonlinear regimes.

Contribution

It introduces a method to exploit plasticity through periodic driving to tailor elastic properties and allosteric interactions in disordered solids.

Findings

Periodic driving couples source and target strains in the energy landscape.

Control of elastic and allosteric responses achieved at large strains.

Plasticity can be harnessed to train desired properties in nonlinear regimes.

Abstract

We consider disordered solids in which the microscopic elements can deform plastically in response to stresses on them. We show that by driving the system periodically, this plasticity can be exploited to train in desired elastic properties, both in the global moduli and in local "allosteric" interactions. Periodic driving can couple an applied "source" strain to a target strain over a path in the energy landscape. This coupling allows control of the system's response even at large strains well into the nonlinear regime, where it can be difficult to achieve control simply by design.