Related papers: Entropic Elasticity at the Sol-Gel Transition
The elastic response is studied of a single flexible chain grafted on a rigid plane and an ensemble of non-interacting tethered chains. It is demonstrated that the entropic theory of rubber elasticity leads to conclusions that disagree with…
The structure, thermodynamics and slow activated dynamics of the equilibrated metastable regime of glass-forming fluids remains a poorly understood problem of high theoretical and experimental interest. We apply a highly accurate…
We compare six elastic models for polymer networks in the context of phase separation within a gel, including a new model that combines the finite extensible Arruda-Boyce model and the slip tube model for entangled chains. We study…
In this work, we develop a rigorous theoretical framework for the evolution of linear viscoelastic properties across the sol-gel transition. More specifically, we derive general admissible expressions for the relaxation modulus and dynamic…
Super-cooled liquids are characterized by their fragility: the slowing down of the dynamics under cooling is more sudden and the jump of specific heat at the glass transition is generally larger in fragile liquids than in strong ones.…
A nematic liquid-crystal gel is a macroscopically homogeneous elastic medium with the rotational symmetry of a nematic liquid crystal. In this paper, we develop a general approach to the study of these gels that incorporates all underlying…
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…
Viscoelastic and thermodynamic properties of transient gels comprised of telechelic polymers are theoretically studied. We extend classical theories of transient networks so that correlations among polymer chains through the network…
The elasticity of rubbery polymer networks has been considered to be entropy-driven. On the other hand, studies on single polymer chain mechanics have revealed that the elasticity of ultimately stretched polymer chains is dominated by the…
We report on extensive molecular dynamics simulations on systems of soft spheres of functionality f, i.e. particles that are capable of bonding irreversibly with a maximum of f other particles. These bonds are randomly distributed…
Calculating by analytical theory the deformation of finite-sized elastic bodies in response to internally applied forces is a challenge. Here, we derive explicit analytical expressions for the amplitudes of modes of surface deformation of a…
We study the onset of rigidity near the glass transition (GT) in a short-chain polymer melt modelled by a bead-spring model, where all beads interact with Lennard-Jones potentials. The properties of the system are examined above and below…
The conventional (Zwanzig-Mountain) expressions for instantaneous elastic moduli of simple fluids predict their divergence as the limit of hard sphere (HS) interaction is approached. However, elastic moduli of a true HS fluid are finite.…
When a soft hydrogel sphere is placed on a rigid hydrophilic substrate, it undergoes arrested spreading by forming an axisymmetric foot near the contact line, while conserving its global spherical shape. In contrast, liquid water (that…
Though extensively studied, hardness, defined as the resistance of a material to deformation, still remains a challenging issue for a formal theoretical description due to its inherent mechanical complexity. The widely applied Teter's…
We study the elasticity of thermalized spring networks under an applied bulk strain. The networks considered are sub-isostatic random-bond networks that, in the athermal limit, are known to have vanishing bulk and linear shear moduli at…
Experiments on isotropic compression of a granular assembly of spheres show that the shear and bulk moduli vary with the confining pressure faster than the 1/3 power law predicted by Hertz-Mindlin effective medium theories (EMT) of contact…
Two dimensional stochastic time model of scrape-off layer (SOL) turbulent transport is studied. Instability arisen in the system with respect to the stochastic perturbations of both either density or vorticity reveals itself in the strong…
Large deformations of soft elastic beads spinning at high angular velocity in a denser background fluid are investigated theoretically, numerically, and experimentally using millimeter-size polyacrylamide hydrogel particles introduced in a…
Recent progress on studies of the nanoscale mechanical responses in disordered systems has highlighted a strong degree of heterogeneity in the elastic moduli. In this contribution, using computer simulations, we study the elastic…