Related papers: A Computational Study of Cluster Dynamics in Struc…
The sliding motion of gold slabs adsorbed on a graphite substrate is simulated using molecular-dynamics. The central quantity of interest is the mean lateral force, i.e., the kinetic friction rather than the maximum lateral forces, which…
The sliding of three-dimensional clusters and two-dimensional islands adsorbed on crystal surfaces represent an important test case to understand friction. Even for the same material, monoatomic islands and thick clusters will not as a rule…
Superlubricity, or alternatively termed structural (super)lubrictiy, is a concept where ultra-low friction is expected at the interface between sliding surfaces if these surfaces are incommensurate and thus unable to interlock. In this…
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…
Using atomic force microscopy experiments and molecular dynamics simulations of gold nanoislands on graphite, we investigate why ultra-small friction commonly associated with structural lubricity can be observed even under ambient…
Surface and interfacial energies play important roles in a number of instability phenomena in liquids and soft matters, but are rare to play a similar role in solids. Here we report a new type of mechanical instabilities that are controlled…
We study a two-dimensional model for interacting colloidal particles which displays spontaneous clustering. Within this model we investigate the competition between the pinning to a periodic corrugation potential, and a sideways constant…
We present an experimental study of the statistical properties of millimeter-size spheres floating on the surface of a turbulent flow. The flow is generated in a layer of liquid metal by an electromagnetic forcing. By using two magnet…
Using molecular dynamics simulation, we investigate the slow dynamics of a supercooled binary mixture of soft particles interacting with a generalized Hertzian potential. At low density, it displays typical slow dynamics near its glass…
Solids at incommensurate contact display low-friction, 'superlubric', sliding. For graphene flakes on a graphite surface, superlubric sliding is only temporary due to rotation of the flakes from incommensurate to commensurate contact with…
A method to couple interparticle contact models with Stokesian dynamics (SD) is introduced to simulate colloidal aggregates under flow conditions. The contact model mimics both the elastic and plastic behavior of the cohesive connections…
For a large class of fluids exhibiting ultrasoft bounded pair potentials, particles form crystals consisting of clusters located in the lattice sites, with a density-independent lattice constant. Here we present an investigation on the…
Structural superlubricity is an intriguing physical phenomenon, whereby sliding at a structurally incommensurate, atomically flat interface yields vanishingly small friction forces. Despite its recent experimental validation, critical…
We present computer simulations of concentrated solutions of unknotted nonconcatenated semiflexible ring polymers. Unlike in their flexible counterparts, shrinking involves a strong energetic penalty, favoring interpenetration and…
In simulations of some infinite range spin glass systems with finite connectivity, it is found that for any resonable computational time, the saturatedenergy per spin that is achieved by a cluster algorithm is lowered in comparison to that…
Elastic and dissipative properties of granular assemblies under uniaxial compression are studied both experimentally and by numerical simulations. Following a novel compaction procedure at varying oscillatory pressures, the stress response…
Shear banding and stick-slip instabilities have been long observed in sheared granular materials. Yet, their microscopic underpinnings, interdependencies and variability under different loading conditions have not been fully explored. Here,…
The sliding motion of objects is typically governed by their friction with the underlying surface. Compared to translational friction, however, rotational friction has received much less attention. Here, we experimentally and theoretically…
We present molecular dynamics (MD) simulations results for dense fluids of ultrasoft, fully-penetrable particles. These are a binary mixture and a polydisperse system of particles interacting via the generalized exponential model, which is…
The structure of random sphere packings in mechanical equilibrium in prescribed stress states, as studied by molecular dynamics simulations, strongly depends on the assembling procedure. Frictionless packings in the limit of low pressure…