Related papers: Elastic critical behaviour in a 3d model for polym…
We present the first systematic measurements of the dynamic response of a glassy soft-solid formed on dispersing colloids in a thermotropic nematic liquid crystal. Through applying a simple theoretical model, we reveal that the nematic…
We study a chemical gelation model in two dimensions which includes both monomer aggregations and bond fluctuations. Our numerical simulation shows that a sol-gel transition occurs when an initial monomer concentration is above a critical…
The systematic errors due to the practical implementation of the Contact Dynamics method for simulation of dense granular media are examined. It is shown that, using the usual iterative solver to simulate a chain of rigid particles,…
We perform molecular-dynamics simulations for polymer melts of the coarse-grained polyvinyl alcohol model that crystallizes upon slow cooling. To establish the properties of its high temperature liquid state as a reference point, we…
We study a model of an active gel of cross-linked semiflexible filaments with additional active linkers such as myosin II clusters. We show that the coupling of the elasticity of the semiflexible filaments to the mechanical properties of…
We study bond percolation of $N$ non-interacting Gaussian polymers of $\ell$ segments on a 2D square lattice of size $L$ with reflecting boundaries. Through simulations, we find the fraction of configurations displaying {\em no} connected…
We develop a new quantitative molecular theory of liquid-phase dipolar polymer gels. We model monomer units of the polymer network as a couple of charged sites separated by a fluctuating distance. For the first time, within the random phase…
In this chapter polyelectrolyte intelligent gels are examined along three broad lines. The effects of different physical, chemical and biological stimuli on gels response are analysed and mechanisms of response are outlined. The broad range…
Using the density functional formalism we derive expression for the distortion free energy for systems with continuous broken symmetry and use it to derive expression for the elastic constants of smectic phases in which director is tilted…
Finite element analysis has been used successfully to estimate the effective properties of many types of composites. The prediction of effective elastic moduli of polymer-bonded explosives provides a new challenge. These particulate…
We study shear stress relaxation for a gelling melt of randomly crosslinked, interacting monomers. We derive a lower bound for the static shear viscosity $\eta$, which implies that it diverges algebraically with a critical exponent $k\ge…
We propose a framework to model elastic properties of polycrystals by coupling crystal orientational degrees of freedom with elastic strains. Our model encodes crystal symmetries and takes into account explicitly the strain compatibility…
Critical fluctuations in fluids and fluid mixtures yield a nonanalytic asymptotic Ising-like critical thermodynamic behavior in terms of power laws with universal exponents. In polymer solutions, the amplitudes of these power laws depend on…
We study the thermodynamics of binary mixtures with the volume fraction of the minority component less than the amount required to form a flat interface and show that the surface tension dominated equilibrium phase of the mixture forms a…
Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the deformation behavior of disperse polymer melts by tracking test chains of length N = Mw, the weight average molecular weight, in melts of varying dispersity. At high strain…
We construct a three-dimensional lattice model for biological gels in which straight lines of bonds correspond to filamentous semi-flexible polymers and lattice sites, which are exactly four-fold coordinated, to crosslinks. With only…
We develop a percolation model motivated by recent experimental studies of gels with active network remodeling by molecular motors. This remodeling was found to lead to a critical state reminiscent of random percolation (RP), but with a…
The fractal dimensions and the percolation exponents of the geometrical spin clusters of like sign at criticality, are obtained numerically for an Ising model with temperature-dependent annealed bond dilution, also known as the thermalized…
Solutions of polymer chains are modelled using non-equilibrium Brownian dynamics simulations, with physically associative beads which form reversible crosslinks to establish a system-spanning physical gel network. Rheological properties…
Active gels play an important role in biology and in inspiring biomimetic active materials, due to their ability to change shape, size and create their own morphology; the relevant mechanics behind these changes is driven by…