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The emergence of spatially variable local dynamics, or dynamic heterogeneity, is common in multicomponent polymer systems. Although often attributed to differences in the intrinsic dynamics of each component, the molecular origin of their…
Polymer composite materials require softening to reduce their glass transition temperature and improve processability. To this end, plasticizers, which are small organic molecules, are added to the polymer matrix. The miscibility of these…
When an amorphous material is strained beyond the point of yielding it enters a state of continual reconfiguration via dissipative, avalanche-like slip events that relieve built-up local stress. However, how the statistics of such events…
The sliding of non-Newtonian drops down planar surfaces results in a complex, entangled balance between interfacial forces and non linear viscous dissipation, which has been scarcely inspected. In particular, a detailed understanding of the…
In these lectures I discuss long-scale properties of fluctuating polymerized membranes in the presence of network anisotropy and random heterogeneities. Amazingly, even infinitesimal amount of these seemingly innocuous but physically…
This study investigates the coupled deformation and flow behavior of thin, hyper-elastic, porous membranes subjected to pressure loading. Using bulge test experiments, optical deformation measurements, and flow rate characterization, we…
All-polymer syntactic foams are studied under large strain cyclic and monotonic tensile loading in order to reveal their tensile stress-strain behaviour, recoverability, tensile strength, and elongation at break. The syntactic foam under…
The role of porous structure and glass density in response to compressive deformation of amorphous materials is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. The disordered, porous structures were prepared by quenching a high-temperature…
In this study, we analyzed the pressure-volume ($P-V$) relationship of elements using the equation of state at an ambient temperature within the multi-megabar pressure range of 200-300 GPa. We investigated the compressibility of elements…
We study surface effects in amorphous polymer systems by means of computer simulation. In the framework of molecular dynamics, we present two different methods to prepare such surfaces. {\em Free} surfaces are stabilized solely by…
The transport of deformable particles through porous media underlies a wealth of applications ranging from filtration to oil recovery to the transport and spreading of biological agents. Using direct numerical simulations, we analyze the…
Fully bioresorbable polymer matrix composites have long been considered as potential orthopaedic implant materials, however their combination of mechanical strength, stiffness, ductility and bioresorbability is also attractive for cardiac…
This paper reports the force spectroscopy analysis of a polymer that translocates from one side of a membrane to the other side through an extended pore, pulled by a cantilever that moves with constant velocity against the damping and the…
Elastoviscoplastic (EVP) fluid flows are driven by a non-trivial interplay between the elastic, viscous, and plastic properties, which under certain conditions can transition the otherwise laminar flow into complex flow instabilities with…
Optimal characterization of the mechanical properties of both cells and their surrounding is an issue of major interest. Indeed, cell function and development are strongly influenced by external stimuli. Furthermore, a change in cell…
Stress relaxation following deformation of an entangled polymeric liquid is thought to be affected by transient reforming of chain entanglements. In this work, we use single molecule techniques to study the relaxation of individual polymers…
The advances in new technologies have prompted the need for functional systems smaller than the gyration radius of polymer chains. Thus, understanding how nanoconfinement affects polymer properties has been the focus of a lot of research…
The morphological scaling properties of linear polymer films grown by vapor deposition polymerization (VDP) are studied by 1+1D Monte Carlo simulations. The model implements the basic processes of random angle ballistic deposition ($F$),…
The mechanics of a flexible membrane decorated with a nematic liquid-crystal texture is considered in a variational framework. The variations on the splay, twist and the bend energy of the nematics are obtained from the local deformations…
The viscoelastic behavior of liquid polymers changes depending on the microstructure of the polymer chains. To investigate the unsteady structural changes induced by polymer chain morphology under stress, we develop a simple rheo-optical…