Related papers: Bouncing gel balls: impact of soft gels onto rigid…
We investigate theoretically and numerically the impact of an elastic sphere on a rigid wall in a viscous fluid. Our focus is on the dynamics of the contact, employing the soft lubrication model in which the sphere is separated from the…
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…
Particles added to a fluid interface can be used as a surface stabilizer in the food, oil and cosmetic industries. As an alternative to rigid particles, it is promising to consider highly deformable particles that can adapt their…
Inspired by the turf-ball interaction in golf, this paper seeks to understand the bounce of a ball that can be modelled as a rigid sphere and the surface as supplying an elasto-plastic contact force in addition to Coulomb friction. A…
The behavior of weakly deformed drops on non wetting surfaces is usually described using linear models. We show that these simple pictures cannot account for measurements of the dynamics of droplets that oscillate or bounce on…
We discuss a class of models for particulate gels in which the particle contacts are described by an effective interaction combining a two-body attraction and a three-body angular repulsion. Using molecular dynamics, we show how varying the…
Extra-large deformations in ultra-soft elastic materials are ubiquitous, yet systematic studies and methods to understand the mechanics of such huge strains are lacking. Here we investigate this complex problem systematically with a simple…
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…
We study the lubrication of fluid-immersed soft interfaces and show that elastic deformation couples tangential and normal forces and thus generates lift. We consider materials that deform easily, due to either geometry (e.g. a shell) or…
Discrete simulation methods are efficient tools to investigate the complex behaviors of complex fluids made of either dry granular materials or dilute suspensions. By contrast, materials made of soft and/or concentrated units (emulsions,…
In this paper we use a deterministic multi-asperity model to investigate the elastic contact of rough spheres. Synthetic rough surfaces with controllable spectra were used to identify individual asperities, their locations and curvatures.…
A rigid cylinder placed on a soft gel deforms its surface. When multiple cylinders are placed on the surface, they interact with each other via the topography of the deformed gel which serves as an energy landscape; as they move, the…
It has been shown that a water drop can bounce persistently, when thrown on a super-hydrophobic substrate. We present here scaling arguments which allow us to predict the maximal deformation and the contact time of the drop. This approach…
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…
A liquid jet can stably bounce off a sufficiently soft gel, by following the contour of the dimple created upon impact. This new phenomenon is insensitive to the wetting properties of the gels and was observed for different liquids over a…
We report, for the first time, some experimental observations regarding a new type of long range interaction between rigid particles that prevails when they are suspended in an soft elastic gel. A denser particle submerges itself to a…
The impact of a hydrogel sphere onto a granular target results in both the deformation of the sphere and the formation of a prominent topographic feature known as impact crater on the granular surface. We investigate the crater formation…
We study experimentally the impact on rigid surfaces of different soft porous solids saturated with liquid: hydrogel balls and liquid-saturated foam balls. The static con tact of such soft solids with the substrate is well described by…
We study a simple model of a bouncing ball that takes explicitely into account the elastic deformability of the body and the energy dissipation due to internal friction. We show that this model is not subject to the problem of inelastic…
The paper considers rotations at different scales in granular materials: the rotations of individual particles, the rolling and rigid-rotation of particle pairs, the rotational interactions of a particle within its cluster of neighbors, and…