Related papers: Bridging particle deformability and collective res…
Confinement can have a dramatic effect on the behavior of all sorts of particulate systems and it therefore is an important phenomenon in many different areas of physics and technology. Here, we investigate the role played by the softness…
Very soft grain assemblies have unique shape-changing capabilities that allow them to be compressed far beyond the rigid jammed state by filling void spaces more effectively. However, accurately following the formation of these systems by…
The ordering of particles in the drying process of a colloidal suspension is crucial in determining the properties of the resulting film. For example, microscopic inhomogeneities can lead to the formation of cracks and defects that can…
A theory of self-propelled particles is developed in two dimensions assuming that the particles can be deformed from a circular shape when the propagating velocity is increased. A coupled set of equations in terms of the velocity and a…
We investigate theoretically the collective dynamics of soft active particles living in a viscous fluid. We focus on a minimal model for active but non-motile particles consisting of $N>1$ elastic dimers deformed by active stresses and…
The jamming transition characterizes athermal systems of particles interacting via finite range repulsive potentials, and occurs on increasing the density when particles cannot avoid making contacts with those of their first coordination…
The deformation and flow of disordered solids, such as metallic glasses and concentrated emulsions, involves swift localized rearrangements of particles that induce a long-range deformation field. To describe these heterogeneous processes,…
Tracking experiments in dense biological tissues reveal a diversity of sources f or local energy injection at the cell scale. The effect of cell motility has been largely studied, but much less is known abo ut the effect of the observed…
Understanding the coupled thermo-mechanical behaviour of compacted granular beds can benefit various industrial applications, such as pebble bed design in fusion reactors. In this study, a thermo-mechanical discrete element method based on…
The plasticity of amorphous solids undergoing shear is characterized by quasi-localized rearrangements of particles. While many models of plasticity exist, the precise relationship between plastic dynamics and the structure of a particle's…
While the large majority of theoretical and numerical studies of the jamming transition consider athermal packings of purely repulsive spheres, real complex fluids and soft solids generically display attraction between particles. By…
The single and collective particle interaction with spatially localized wavepackets is analytically and numerically studied. The role of the finite spatial width of the wavepacket on the momentum and energy variation of particles passing…
A simple model of an active colloid consisting of dumbbell-shaped particles that cyclically change their length without propelling themselves is proposed and analyzed. At nanoscales, it represents an idealization for bacterial cytoplasm or…
Soft-granular media, such as dense emulsions, foams or tissues, exhibit either fluid- or solid-like properties depending on the applied external stresses. Whereas bulk rheology of such materials has been thoroughly investigated, the…
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,…
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.…
We study the elastic response of rigid, wire frame particles in concentrated, glassy suspensions to a step strain by applying the simple, geometric methods developed in part I. The wire frame particles are comprised of thin, rigid rods of…
Three-dimensional discrete numerical simulation is used to investigate the properties of close-packed frictionless granular assemblies as a function of particle polydispersity and shape. Unlike some experimental results, simulations show…
We review recent progress in the theoretical description of anisotropic hard colloidal particles. The shapes considered range from rods and dumbbells to rounded cubes, polyhedra and to biaxial particles with arbitrary shape. Our focus is on…
Granular jamming has been identified as a fundamental mechanism for the operation of robotic grippers. In this work, we show, that soft particles like expanded polystyrene beads lead to significantly larger gripping forces in comparison to…