Related papers: Modeling a fluid to solid phase transition in snow…
The transport properties of an ionic model for liquid silica at high temperatures and pressure are investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. With increasing pressure, a clear change from "strong" to "fragile" behaviour (according…
Fiber bundles with statistically distributed thresholds for breakdown of individual fibers are interesting models of the static and dynamics of failures in materials under stress. They can be analyzed to an extent that is not possible for…
We investigate the sliding of objects on an inclined granular surface close to the avalanche threshold. Our experiments show that the stability is driven by the surface deformations. Heavy objects generate footprint-like deformations which…
In the context of the energy landscape description of supercooled liquids, we propose an explanation for the different behaviour of fragile and strong liquids. Above the Goldstein crossover temperature Tx, diffusion is interpreted as a…
Yield stress fluids (YSFs) display a dual nature highlighted by the existence of a yield stress such that YSFs are solid below the yield stress, whereas they flow like liquids above it. Under an applied shear rate $\dot\gamma$, the…
We study the transition of a granular packing from liquid to solid bonding in the course of drying. The particles are initially wetted by a liquid brine and the cohesion of the packing is ensured by capillary forces, but the crystallization…
Solids deform and fluids flow, but soft glassy materials, such as emulsions, foams, suspensions, and pastes, exhibit an intricate mix of solid and liquid-like behavior. While much progress has been made to understand their elastic (small…
Surface flow of granular material is investigated within a continuum approach in two dimensions. The dynamics is described by a non-linear coupling between the two `states' of the granular material: a mobile layer and a static bed.…
Wetting and drying of a rigid substrate by a Lennard-Jones fluid in molecular dynamics simulations is reported. The size of the substrate particles, being smaller than the fluid particles in former simulations, is now taken to be equal to,…
Our general subject is the emergence of phases, and phase transitions, in large networks subjected to a few variable constraints. Our main result is the analysis, in the model using edge and triangle subdensities for constraints, of a sharp…
We prove that a system of particles in the plane, interacting only with a certain hard-core constraint, undergoes a fluid/solid phase transition.
Fracture processes in multi-phase solids are inherently complex due to multiple competing mechanisms. Here, we investigate the elastic and fracture behaviour of two-phase solids, comprising a fragile phase and a tough phase using a…
What characterises a solid is its way to respond to external stresses. Ordered solids, such crystals, display an elastic regime followed by a plastic one, both well understood microscopically in terms of lattice distortion and dislocations.…
We study slip avalanches in disordered materials under an increasing external load in the framework of a fiber bundle model. Over-stressed fibers of the model do not break, instead they relax in a stick-slip event which may trigger an…
The thermodynamic and kinetic anomalies of supercooled liquids are analyzed from the perspective of energy landscapes. A mean field model, a generalized random energy model of liquids is developed, which exhibits a dynamical transition of…
Yield stress materials flow if a sufficiently large shear stress is ap- plied. Although such materials are ubiquitous and relevant for indus- try, there is no accepted microscopic description of how they yield, even in the simplest…
Simulations show that sliding bilayers of colloidal particles can exhibit a new phase, the ``melt-freeze'' phase, where the layers stochastically alternate between solidlike and liquidlike states. We introduce a mean field phenomenological…
An analytical model of non-Gaussian energy landscape of low-temperature fluids is developed based on the thermodynamics of the fluid of dipolar hard spheres. The entire excitation profile of the liquid, from the high temperatures to the…
Understanding the coupled dynamics of liquid-solid phase change and fluid flows is crucial in a wide range of geophysical and industrial applications. When freezing occurs in saline water, the newly formed ice is mushy, with a porous…
The avalanche to streamer transition is studied and illustrated in a particle model. The results are similar to those of fluid models. However, when super-particles are introduced, numerical artefacts become visible. This underscores the…