Related papers: Revisiting the strain-induced softening behaviour …
We perform equilibrium Langevin dynamics simulations to understand the structure-viscoelasticity relationship of a dually crosslinked reversible polymer network. The cross-linking is achieved by introducing orthogonal crosslinkers (A and B)…
Polymer gels are comprised of a three-dimensional, cross-linked network that can typically withstand the mechanical deformation associated with both swelling and de-swelling. Thus, gels can be designed with smart behaviors that require both…
For small tension the response of a solid to an applied stress is given by Hooke's law. Outside this linear regime the relation between stress and strain is no longer universal and at present there is no satisfactory insight on how to…
Colloidal gel networks are disordered elastic solids that can form even in extremely dilute particle suspensions. With interaction strengths comparable to the thermal energy, their stress-bearing network can locally restructure via breaking…
The contact of a hydrogel during the rotational shearing on glass surface in concentrated polymer solution was observed in situ. Dynamic contact patterns that rotate in-phase with the rotational shearing of the gel were observed for the…
Ferrogels are smart soft materials, consisting of a polymeric network and embedded magnetic particles. Novel phenomena, such as the variation of the overall mechanical properties by external magnetic fields, emerge consequently. However,…
Biological molecules can form hydrogen bonds between nearby residues, leading to helical secondary structures. The associated reduction of configurational entropy leads to a temperature dependence of this effect: the "helix-coil…
Subjected to compressive stresses, soft polymers with stiffness gradients can display various buckling patterns. These compressive stresses can have different origins, like mechanical forces, temperature changes, or, for hydrogel materials,…
We investigate the heterogeneous dynamics in a model, where chemical gelation and glass transition interplay, focusing on the dynamical susceptibility. Two independent mechanisms give raise to the correlations, which are manifested in the…
Living tissues show an extraordinary adaptiveness to strain, which is crucial for their proper biological functioning. The physical origin of this mechanical behaviour has been widely investigated using reconstituted networks of collagen…
In a recent letter, Govaert et al. examined the relationship between strain hardening modulus $G_r$ and flow stress $\sigma_{flow}$ for five different glassy polymers. In each case, results for $G_r$ at different strain rates or different…
Polymer entanglements lead to complicated topological constraints and interactions between neighbouring chains in a dense solution or melt. Entanglements can be treated in a mean field approach, within the famous reptation model, since they…
Microgels are elastic and deformable particles with a hybrid nature between that of polymers and colloids and unconventional behaviours with respect to hard colloids. We investigated the dynamics of a soft microgel made of interpenetrated…
\textbf{Background} Hydrogels are crosslinked polymer networks that can absorb and retain a large fraction of liquid. Near a critical sliding velocity, hydrogels pressed against smooth surfaces exhibit time-dependent frictional behavior…
High-manganese twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steels exhibit high strain hardening, high tensile strength, and high ductility, which make them attractive for structural applications. At low tensile strain rates, TWIP steels are prone to…
The yielding of foams, concentrated emulsions, pastes and other soft materials under applied strain is often characterized by measuring the complex shear modulus as a function of strain amplitude at low frequency. Results obtained for…
We investigate dynamical heterogeneities in the collective relaxation of a concentrated microgel system, for which the packing fraction can be conveniently varied by changing the temperature. The packing fraction dependent mechanical…
When sheared, most elastic solids such as metals, rubbers and polymer hydrogels dilate in the direction perpendicular to the shear plane. This well-known behaviour known as the Poynting effect is characterized by a positive normal stress.…
We measure the rheology of transient hydrogels comprised of a single type of DNA nanostar that makes both strong and weak bonds. These gels exhibit power-law frequency-dependence of their storage and loss moduli, with scaling exponents that…
The mechanical properties of many supramolecular materials are often determined by non-covalent interactions that arise from an interplay between chemical composition and molecular microstructural organization. The reversible nature of…