Elasto-capillary collapse of floating structures - Non-linear response of elastic structures under capillary forces

Flexible rings and rectangle structures floating at the surface of water are prone to deflect under the action of surface pressure induced by the addition of surfactant molecules on the bath. While the frames of rectangles bend inward or outward for any surface pressure difference, circles are only deformed by compression beyond a critical buckling load. However, compressed frames also undergo a secondary buckling instability leading to a rhoboidal shape. Following the pioneering works of cite{Hu} and cite{Zell}, we describe both experimentally and theoretically the different elasto-capillary deflection and buckling modes as a function of the material parameters. In particular we show how this original fluid structure interaction may be used to probe the adsorption of surfactant molecules at liquid interfaces.