Related papers: Solid Capillarity: When and How does Surface Tensi…

Although realizing wetting transitions of droplets spontaneously on solid rough surfaces is quite challenging, it is becoming a key research topic in many practical applications which require highly efficient removal of liquid. We report…

The flow of dense suspensions, glasses, and granular materials is heavily influenced by frictional interactions between constituent particles. However, neither hydrodynamics nor friction has successfully explained the full range of flow…

Icosahedral shells undergo a buckling transition as the ratio of Young's modulus to bending stiffness increases. Strong bending stiffness favors smooth, nearly spherical shapes, while weak bending stiffness leads to a sharply faceted…

We show that two-dimensional systems of deformable particles undergo a continuous liquid-hexatic transition upon compression or cooling, but no hexatic-solid transition-even at zero temperature and high density. Numerical simulations reveal…

We study the solid-to-liquid transition in a two-dimensional fully periodic soft-glassy model with an imposed spatially heterogeneous stress. The model we consider consists of droplets of a dispersed phase jammed together in a continuous…

Soft solids and their surface deformations control the response of many natural and artificial systems. Yet, their underlying properties are vigorously debated, particularly for polymer networks. While molecular-scale theories predict no…

We study the deformation of a fluctuating crystalline sheet confined between two flat rigid walls as a simple model for layered solids where bonds among atoms {\it within} the same layer are much stronger than those {\it between} layers.…

Hot liquid metal drops impacting onto a cold substrate solidify during their subsequent spreading. Here we experimentally study the influence of solidification on the outcome of an impact event. Liquid tin drops are impacted onto sapphire…

A uniform solidification front undergoes non-trivial deformations when encountering an insoluble dispersed particle in a melt. For solid particles, the overall deformation characteristics are primarily dictated by heat transfer between the…

The size and shape of a large variety of polymeric particles, including biological cells, star polymers, dendrimes, and microgels, depend on the applied stresses as the particles are extremely soft. In high-density suspensions these…

Wetting phenomena plays an interesting role in the technological development of materials. Recently, much attention has been directed to the study of magnetic solid films. To understand, theoretically, the effect of surface on wetting and…

Laboratory studies reveal a deformational instability that leads to a drained region (dry spot) in an initially flat liquid layer (with a free upper surface) heated uniformly from below. This long-wavelength instability supplants hexagonal…

The equilibrium contact angle of a droplet resting on a solid substrate can reveal essential properties of the solid's surface. However, when the motion of a droplet on a surface shows significant hysteresis, it is generally accepted that…

A paperclip can float on water. Drops of mercury refuse to spread on a surface. These capillary phenomena are macroscopic manifestations of molecular interactions, and can be explained in terms of surface tension. For students, the concept…

In order to design tougher materials, it is crucial to understand the relationship between their composition and their resistance to fracture. To this end, we investigate the fracture toughness of usual sodium silicate glasses (NS) and…

The rheological properties of capillary suspensions, suspensions with small amounts of an added immiscible fluid, are dramatically altered with the addition of the secondary fluid. We investigate a capillary suspension to determine how the…

Most natural and man-made surfaces appear to be rough on many length scales. There is presently no unifying theory of the origin of roughness or the self-affine nature of surface topography. One likely contributor to the formation of…

Tangential interactions between particles play a central role in suspension rheology. We show theoretically that these interactions, often attributed to contact friction, are a direct consequence of fluid flows between rough particles in…

Lubrication flows appear in many applications in engineering, biophysics, and in nature. Separation of surfaces and minimisation of friction and wear is achieved when the lubrication fluid builds up a lift force. In this paper we analyse…

Freezing of dispersions is omnipresent in science and technology. While the passing of a freezing front over a solid particle is reasonably understood, this is not so for soft particles. Here, using an oil-in-water emulsion as a model…