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The method of iterated conformal maps is developed for quasi-static fracture of brittle materials, for all modes of fracture. Previous theory, that was relevant for mode III only, is extended here to mode I and II. The latter require…
The rigidity transition occurs when, as the density of microscopic components is increased, a disordered medium becomes able to transmit and ensure macroscopic mechanical stability, owing to the appearance of a space-spanning rigid…
We discuss the stick-slip motion of an elastic block sliding along a rigid substrate. We argue that for a given external shear stress this system shows a discontinuous nonequilibrium transition from a uniform stick state to uniform sliding…
We investigate the influence of fractal structure on material properties. We calculate the statistical correlation functions of fractal media defined by level-cut Gaussian random fields. This allows the modeling of both surface fractal and…
Cohesive powders form agglomerates that can be very porous. Hence they are also very fragile. Consider a process of complete fragmentation on a characteristic length scale $\ell$, where the fragments are subsequently allowed to settle under…
The quasistatic behavior of a simple 2D model of a cohesive powder under isotropic loads is investigated by Discrete Element simulations. The loose packing states, as studied in a previous paper, undergo important structural changes under…
Homogeneity and isotropy of the universe at sufficiently large scales is a fundamental premise on which modern cosmology is based. Fractal dimensions of matter distribution is a parameter that can be used to test the hypothesis of…
We introduce a lattice model able to describe damage and yielding in heterogeneous materials ranging from brittle to ductile ones. Ductile fracture surfaces, obtained when the system breaks once the strain is completely localized, are shown…
The role of grain size in determining fracture toughness in metals is incompletely understood with apparently contradictory experimental observations. We study this grain-size dependence computationally by building a model that combines the…
In this work lipid ordering phase changes arising in planar membrane bilayers is investigated both accounting for elas- ticity alone and for effective viscoelastic response of such assemblies. The mechanical response of such membranes is…
On microscopic and mesoscopic scales, plastic flow of crystals is characterized by large intrinsic fluctuations. Deformation by crystallographic slip occurs in a sequence of intermittent bursts ('slip avalanches') with power-law size…
Widespread processes in nature and technology are governed by the dynamical transition whereby a material in an initially solid-like state then yields plastically. Major unresolved questions concern whether any material will yield smoothly…
Sheared multi-component bulk metallic glasses are characterized by both chemical and structural disorder that define their properties. We investigate the behavior of the local, microstructural elastic modulus across the plastic yielding…
When an amorphous solid is deformed homogeneously, the response exhibits heterogeneous plastic instabilities with localized cooperative rearrangement of cluster of particles. The heterogeneous behavior plays an important role in deciding…
A wide range of disordered materials, from biological to geological assemblies, feature discrete elements undergoing large shape changes. How significant geometrical variations at the microscopic scale affect the response of the assembly,…
The elastic moduli of four numerical random isotropic packings of Hertzian spheres are studied. The four samples are assembled with different preparation procedures, two of which aim to reproduce experimental compaction by vibration and…
We investigate the possibility of a striped inhomoegenous phase occurring as an electronic system with an order parameter linearly coupled to the elastic degrees of freedom is tuned through the electronic phase transition. We find that in…
We study the yielding transition of a two dimensional amorphous system under shear by using a mesoscopic elasto-plastic model. The model combines a full (tensorial) description of the elastic interactions in the system, and the possibility…
Mechanical densification of granular bodies is a process in which a loose material becomes increasingly cohesive as the applied pressure increases. A constitutive description of this process faces the formidable problem that granular and…
We study two closely related, nonlinear models of a viscoplastic solid. These models capture essential features of plasticity over a wide range of strain rates and applied stresses. They exhibit inelastic strain relaxation and steady flow…