Related papers: Capillarity of soft amorphous solids: a microscopi…
It is shown on the basis of scaling arguments that a disordered interface between two elastic solids will quite generally exhibit static and "dry friction" (i.e., kinetic friction which does not vanish as the sliding velocity approaches…
The equation of motions and the conditions on surfaces and edges between fluids and solids in presence of non-constant surface energies, as in the case of surfactants attached to the fluid particles at the interfaces, are revisited under…
Liquid capillary-bridge formation between solid particles has a critical influence on the rheological properties of granular materials and, in particular, on the efficiency of fluidized bed reactors. The available analytical and…
Superhydrophobic surfaces play an important role in the development of new product coatings such as cars, but also in mechanical engineering, especially design of turbines and compressors. Thus a vital part of the design of these surfaces…
External stress can accelerate molecular mobility of amorphous solids by several orders of magnitude. The changes in mobility are commonly interpreted through the Eyring model, which invokes an empirical activation volume whose origin…
I study fluid flow at the interface between elastic solids with randomly rough surfaces. I use the contact mechanics model of Persson to take into account the elastic interaction between the solid walls and the Bruggeman effective medium…
We consider a liquid bridge between two identical spheres and provide approximate expressions for the capillary force and the exposed surface area of the liquid bridge as functions of the liquid bridge's total volume and the sphere…
Soft solids with tunable mechanical response are at the core of new material technologies, but a crucial limit for applications is their progressive aging over time, which dramatically affects their functionalities. The generally accepted…
We consider models for elastic liquids, such as solutions of flexible polymers. They introduce a relaxation time $\lambda$ into the system, over which stresses relax. We study the kinematics of the problem, and clarify the relationship…
Electrowetting is a commonly used tool to manipulate sessile drops on hydrophobic surfaces. By applying an external voltage over a liquid and a dielectric-coated surface, one achieves a reduction of the macroscopic contact angles for…
Deformable colloids and macromolecules adsorb at interfaces, as they decrease the interfacial energy between the two media. The deformability, or softness, of these particles plays a pivotal role in the properties of the interface. In this…
The notion of tissue surface tension has provided a physical understanding of morphogenetic phenomena such as tissue spreading or cell sorting. The measurement of tissue surface tension so far relied on strong approximations on the…
We derive a formula, useful for first-principles calculations, which relates the free energy of an oxide/metal interface to the free energies of surfaces and the work of separation of the interface. We distinguish the latter {\it…
For partially wetting, ellipsoidal colloids trapped at a fluid interface, their effective, interface--mediated interactions of capillary and fluctuation--induced type are analyzed. For contact angles different from 90$^o$, static interface…
We present a calculation of the change of free energy of a solid surface upon bending of the solid. It is based on extracting the surface stress through a molecular dynamics simulation of a bent slab by using a generalized stress theorem…
Onset of vacuum arcing near a metal surface is often associated with nanoscale asperities, which may dynamically appear due to different processes ongoing in the surface and subsurface layers in the presence of high electric fields.…
We propose a novel three-way coupling method to model the contact interaction between solid and fluid driven by strong surface tension. At the heart of our physical model is a thin liquid membrane that simultaneously couples to both the…
We present a theory that is able to account quantitatively for the surface and interfacial tensions of different electrolyte solutions. It is found that near the interface, ions can be separated into two classes: the kosmotropes and the…
The squeezing of soft solids, the constrained growth of biological tissues, and the swelling of soft elastic solids such as gels can generate large compressive stresses at their surfaces. This causes the otherwise smooth surface of such a…
When a rigid object approaches a soft material in a viscous fluid, hydrodynamic stresses arise in the lubricated contact region and deform the soft material. The elastic deformation modifies in turn the flow, hence generating a…