Rectangular plate clamped horizontally on its short sides subject to compressive boundary conditions; compression factor is chosen such that pure bending energy minimization would lead to self-intersections.
Twist is imposed via choosing corresponding initial value and boundary conditions.
Plate is clamped horizontally on lower corner; material mismatch between layers induces a large deformation of the plate. Energy minimization without tangent-point potential (ρ=0) leads to self-intersections that are prevented by penalizing the energy with the potential (ρ>0).
Strips are clamped on one short side; self-repulsion leads to a corkscrew-like equilibrium state.
Relaxation of an initial configuration resembling a trefoil knot; sufficiently strong self-repulsion preserves knot topology.
Torsion is imposed via choice of the initial configuration.
Tightening of the knot is induced via imposing a gravitational force pointing upwards.
