Deformation of small compressed droplets

We investigate the elastic properties of small droplets under compression. The compression of a bubble by two parallel plates is solved exactly and it is shown that a lowest-order expansion of the solution reduces to a form similar to that obtained by Morse and Witten [Europhys. Lett. 22, 549 (1993)]. Other systems are studied numerically and results for configurations involving between 2 and 20 compressing planes are presented. It is found that the response to compression depends on the number of planes. The shear modulus is also calculated for common lattices and the stability crossover between fcc and bcc is discussed. © 1996 The American Physical Society.