Related papers: Microscopic interactions and emerging elasticity i…
The capillary forces exerted by liquid drops and bubbles on a soft solid are directly measured using molecular dynamics simulations. The force on the solid by the liquid near the contact line is not oriented along the liquid vapor interface…
We present further evidence that gelation is an arrested phase separation in attractive colloid-polymer mixtures, based on a method combining confocal microscopy experiments with numerical simulations recently established in {\bf Nature…
Numerical and analytical methods are developed for the investigation of contact sets in electrostatic-elastic deflections modeling micro-electro mechanical systems. The model for the membrane deflection is a fourth-order semi-linear partial…
We discuss a simple model of particles hopping in one dimension with attractive interactions. Taking a hydrodynamic limit in which the interaction strength increases with the system size, we observe the formation of multiple clusters of…
Responsive hydrogels can sense environmental stimuli and respond as actuators by expelling water and changing shape. In this article, we develop theory to demonstrate that groups of responsive hydrogels can also communicate with each other,…
Many organisms have an elastic skeleton that consists of a closed shell of epithelial cells that is filled with fluid, and can actively regulate both elastic forces in the shell and hydrostatic pressure inside it. In this work we introduce…
We present a mesoscale representation of near-contact interactions between colliding droplets which permits to reach up to the scale of full microfluidic devices, where such droplets are produced. The method is demonstrated for the case of…
We report a molecular dynamics study of the contact between a rigid solid with a randomly rough surface and an elastic block with a flat surface. We study the contact area and the interfacial separation from small contact (low load) to full…
Current engineering wear models are often based on empirical parameters rather than built upon physical considerations. Here, we look for a physical description of adhesive wear at the microscale, at which the interaction between two…
A continuum electromechanical model is proposed to describe the membrane curvature induced by electrostatic interactions in a solvated protein-membrane system. The model couples the macroscopic strain energy of membrane and the…
Many types of mammalian cells exert active contractile forces and mechanically deform their elastic substrate, to accomplish biological functions such as cell migration. These substrate deformations provide a mechanism by which cells can…
Glass formers exhibit a viscoelastic behavior: at the laboratory timescale, they behave like (glassy) solids at low temperatures, and like liquids at high temperatures. Based on this observation, elastic models relate the long time…
The effects of particle roughness and short-ranged non-central forces on colloidal gels are studied using computer simulations in which particles experience a sinusoidal variation in energy as they rotate. The number of minima $n$ and…
A recently published analytical model, describing and predicting elasticity, viscosity, and fragility of metallic melts, is applied for the analysis of about 30 nonmetallic glassy systems, ranging from oxide network glasses to alcohols,…
The buckling of a soft elastic sample under growth or swelling has highlighted a new interest in materials science, morphogenesis, and biology or physiology. Indeed, the change of mass or volume is a common fact of any living species, and…
We present a new microscopic model of granular medium to study the role of dynamical correlations and the onset of spatial order induced by the inelasticity of the interactions. In spite of its simplicity, it features several different…
We study the structure and the dynamics in the formation of irreversible gels by means of molecular dynamics simulation of a model system where the gelation transition is due to the random percolation of permanent bonds between neighboring…
We combine small angle scattering experiments and simulations to investigate the internal structure and interactions of composite Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-Poly(ethylene glycol) (PNIPAM-PEG) microgels. At low temperatures the…
The vibrational properties of a face-centered cubic granular crystal of monodisperse particles are predicted using a discrete model as well as two micropolar models, first the classical Cosserat and second an enhanced Cosserat-type model,…
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…