Related papers: Microscopic interactions and emerging elasticity i…
Using a simplified microstructural picture we show that interactions between thermosenstive microgel particles can be described by a polymer brush like corona decorating the dense core. The softness of the potential is set by the relative…
Elastic microphase separation refers to equilibrium patterns that form by phase separation in elastic gels. Recent experiments revealed a continuous phase transition from the homogeneous phase to a regularly patterned phase, whose period…
Rheological responses are the most relevant features to describe soft matter. So far, such constitutive relations are still not well understood in terms of small scale properties, although this knowledge would help the design of synthetic…
The interaction between visco-elasto-plastic and adhesive particles is the subject of this study, where "meso-particles" are introduced, i.e., simplified particles, whose contact mechanics is not taken into account in all details. A few…
We study an elasticity model for compressed protein monolayers or particle rafts at a liquid interface. Based on the microscopic view of hard-core particles with soft shells, a bead-spring model is formulated and analyzed in terms of…
Microgels are soft colloidal particles that, when dispersed in a solvent, swell and deswell in response to changes in environmental conditions, such as temperature, concentration, and $p$H. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we model bulk…
An improved linear model is developed for elasto-plastic and adhesive contact. New correlations are proposed and validated to estimate the key input parameters of the model, including contact stiffness, yield point, maximum pull-off force…
Letting free polymers diffuse from solution into a crosslinked polymer gel is often a crucial processing step in the synthesis of multiphase polymer-based gels, e.g., core-shell microgels. Here we use coarse-grained molecular dynamics…
We propose a statistical model for static and sliding friction between rough surfaces. Approximating the contact between rough surfaces by the contact of an ensemble of one-dimensional viscoelastic elements with a rough rigid surface, we…
Nano-particle agglomeration plays an important role in processes such as spray drying and particle flame synthesis. These processes have in common that nano-particles collide at low concentrations and get irreversibly linked at the point of…
The macroscopic mechanical properties of colloidal particle gels strongly depend on the local arrangement of the powder particles. Experiments have shown that more heterogeneous microstructures exhibit up to one order of magnitude higher…
By means of molecular dynamics, we study the structure and the dynamics of a microscopic model for colloidal gels at low volume fractions. The presence of directional interactions leads to the formation of a persistent interconnected…
Active gels are a class of biologically-relevant material containing embedded agents that spontaneously generate forces acting on a sparse filament network. In vitro experiments of protein filaments and molecular motors have revealed a…
The microscopic structure of several amorphous substances often reveals complex patterns such as medium- or long-range order, spatial heterogeneity, and even local polycrystallinity. To capture all these features, models usually incorporate…
We present a mesoscopic approach to granular crystal dynamics, which comprises a three-dimensional finite-element model and a one-dimensional regularized contact model. The approach investigates the role of vibrational-energy trapping…
The systematic errors due to the practical implementation of the Contact Dynamics method for simulation of dense granular media are examined. It is shown that, using the usual iterative solver to simulate a chain of rigid particles,…
Soft, repulsive run-and-tumble particles display emergent effective interactions as they appear to stick to each other in spite of the absence of attractive forces. This effective attraction emerges at strong enough repulsion and large…
Identifying the necessary conditions for the onset of rigidity in a gel remains a challenge. It has been suggested that local particle coordination could be used to establish such conditions, but rigid gels occur for various coordination…
The elastic properties of a soft matter material can be greatly altered by the presence of solid inclusions whose microscopic properties, such as their size and interactions, can have a dramatic effect. In order to shed light on these…
In the presence of ATP, molecular motors generate active force dipoles that drive suspensions of protein filaments far from thermodynamic equilibrium, leading to exotic dynamics and pattern formation. Microscopic modelling can help to…