Dr Rehan Shah presented his latest research at the global European Solid Mechanics Conference (ESMC) organised by the European Mechanics Society (EUROMECH) and held from 6th - 12th July 2025 in Lyon, France, after being awarded funding from the Quarterly Journal of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics Fund (QJMAM) administered by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA).

Dr Shah delivered a mini-symposia talk from his published paper 'Static friction models, buckling and lift-off for a rod deforming on a cylinder' (Shah and van der Heijden, 2023) in the Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids (JMPS) stemming from his collaboration with Prof Gert van der Heijden from University College London.

The work outlines the development of a comprehensive geometrically-exact theory for an end-loaded elastic rod constrained to deform on a cylindrical surface. By viewing the rod-cylinder system as a special case of an elastic braid, the theory allows determination of all forces and moments imparted by the deforming rod to the cylinder as well as all contact reactions. The framework also provides a complete treatment of static friction consistent with force and moment balance and also accounts for a cylinder with an arbitrary orientation to account for the effects of gravity.

Applications of the theory include buckling of the constrained rod under compressive and torsional loads, finding critical loads that depend on Coulomb-like friction parameters and investigating the the tendency of a rod to lift off the cylinder under further loading due to friction and/or gravity. The results are relevant for many engineering and medical applications in which a slender structure winds inside or outside a cylindrical boundary.

The talk was well received with positive feedback from attendees in a conference that serves as a major event for the solid mechanics community in Europe, providing a unique forum for scientists and engineers from Europe and across the world to exchange ideas on the current state-of-the-art in the mechanics of solids, on new concepts and ideas and to identify new research directions.