Related papers: The Intriguing Flow Behavior of Soft Materials
Simple homogeneous shear flows of frictionless, deformable particles are studied by particle simulations at large shear rates and for differently soft, deformable particles. The particle stiffness sets a time-scale that can be used to scale…
Dense suspensions of soft colloidal particles display a broad range of physical and rheological properties which are still far from being fully understood. To elucidate the role of deformability on colloidal flow, we employ computer…
Soft, low-friction particles in silos show peculiar features during their discharge. The outflow velocity and the clogging probability both depend upon the momentary silo fill height, in sharp contrast to silos filled with hard particles.…
The transport of solid particles entrained by a fluid flow is frequently found in industrial applications. A better knowledge of it, is of importance to improve particle related industrial processes. When shear stresses exerted by the fluid…
Colloidal particles dispersed in liquid crystals can form new materials with tunable elastic and electro-optic properties. In a periodic `blue phase' host, particles should template into colloidal crystals with potential uses in photonics,…
Manipulation of viscous liquids is an essential kitchen activity - from pouring golden syrup onto a pancake to decorating a cake with whipped cream frosting, from streaming ketchup on top of French fries to dispensing molten chocolate onto…
It is widely appreciated that surface tension can dominate the behavior of liquids at small scales. Solids also have surface stresses of a similar magnitude, but they are usually overlooked. However, recent work has shown that these can…
Stimuli-responsive materials that modify their shape in response to changes in environmental conditions -- such as solute concentration, temperature, pH, and stress -- are widespread in nature and technology. Applications include micro- and…
Starch solutions, which are strongly non-Newtonian, show a surface instability, when subjected to a load. A droplet of the fluid is sandwiched between two glass plates and a weight varying from 1 to 5 kgs. is placed on the top plate. The…
We have studied the breakup and subsequent fluid flow in very thin films of partially wetting liquid on solid substrates, using molecular dynamics simulations. The liquid is made of short chain molecules interacting with Lennard-Jones…
Dense granular media have a compaction between the random loose and random close packings. For these dense media the concept of a granular pressure depending on compaction is not unanimously accepted because they are often in a "frozen"…
When a suspension dries, the suspending fluid evaporates, leaving behind a dry film composed of the suspended particles. During the final stages of drying, the height of the fluid film on the substrate drops below the particle size,…
The spontaneous formation of droplets via dewetting of a thin fluid film from a solid substrate allows for materials nanostructuring, under appropriate experimental control. While thermal fluctuations are expected to play a role in this…
Mechanical metamaterials are engineered materials that gain their remarkable mechanical properties, such as negative Poisson's ratios, negative compressibility, phononic bandgaps, and topological phonon modes, from their structure rather…
We suggest a scalar model for deformation and flow of an amorphous material such as a foam or an emulsion. To describe elastic, plastic and viscous behaviours, we use three scalar variables: elastic deformation, plastic deformation rate and…
Thermal convection stands out as an exceptionally efficient thermal transport mechanism, distinctly separate from conduction and radiation. Yet, the inherently elusive nature of fluid motion poses challenges in accurately controlling…
The invasion of air into porous systems in drying processes is often localized in soft materials, such as colloidal suspensions and granular pastes, and it typically develops in the form of cracks before ordinary drying begins. To…
While deeply supercooled liquids exhibit divergent viscosity and increasingly heterogeneous dynamics as the temperature drops, their structure shows only seemingly marginal changes. Understanding the nature of relaxation processes in this…
A minimal athermal model for the flow of dense disordered materials is proposed, based on two generic ingredients: local plastic events occuring above a microscopic yield stress, and the non-local elastic release of the stress these events…
Fluidized granular media have a rich rheology: measuring shear stress $\sigma$ as a function of shear rate $\dot\gamma$, they exhibit Newtonian behavior $\sigma\sim\dot\gamma$ for low densities and shear rates, develop a yield stress for…