软凝聚态物质
Significant challenges exist in the nonlinear extensional rheology of entangled polymers. With simulations, we show that the key to understanding this problem is to recognize the existence and importance of a strain-induced crossover from…
Understanding how pore structure influences flow and transport behaviour in granular materials is essential for addressing a wide range of geotechnical, hydraulic, and environmental challenges. These processes are largely shaped by the…
We reformulate the Leslie effects that describe the dynamic cross-couplings in chiral liquid crystals driven by the transport of heat, electric charge, and mass. The Ericksen--Leslie model is extended in the linear response framework by…
Acoustic levitation provides a unique method for manipulating small particles as it completely evades effects from gravity, container walls, or physical handling. These advantages make it a tantalizing platform for studying complex…
We merge classical origami concepts with active actuation by designing origami patterns whose panels undergo prescribed metric changes. These metric changes render the system non-Euclidean, inducing non-zero Gaussian curvature at the…
Micropolar fluid theory, an extension of classical Newtonian fluid dynamics, incorporates angular velocities and rotational inertias and has long been a foundational framework for describing granular flows. We propose a macroscopic model of…
Folded protein hydrogels are prime candidates as tuneable biomaterials but it is unclear to what extent their mechanical properties have mesoscopic, as opposed to molecular origins. To address this, we probe hydrogels of the muscle-derived…
We investigate magnetic active matter in confined geometries using both experiments with magnetic toy robots Hexbugs and simulations of elongated magnetic active Brownian particles in circular domains. Standard active particles tend to…
We investigate extensional viscosity and polymer conformation in dilute polymer solutions under uniaxial extensional flow using dissipative particle dynamics simulations. At high extension rates, polymers are significantly stretched by…
Compact analytical forms are derived for the interactions involving thin disks in two dimensions using an integration approach. These include interactions between a disk and a material point, between two disks, and between a disk and a…
When a drop of liquid comes into contact with a solid surface, it relaxes towards an equilibrium configuration, either wetting the surface or remaining in a droplet-like shape with a finite contact angle. The force driving the process…
Origami as a deployable structure offers the unique advantage of achieving compact stowage via flat-folding while forming a well-defined surface composed of rigid panels upon deployment. However, since origami consists of flat facets, it is…
We explore the dynamical response of the free surface of an ultra-soft solid driven by a localized moving pressure disturbance. Experiments reveal a steady V-shaped wake analogous to a surface Mach wedge. A simple geometric argument…
A new direct air capture (DAC) technology uses a moisture swing (MS) process with anion exchange membranes, potentially offering a more energy-efficient way to remove CO2 from the air. In this MS process, the membrane absorbs CO2 as it…
Understanding how granular materials behave in low gravity is crucial for planetary science and space exploration. It can also help us understand granular phenomena usually hidden by gravity. On Earth, gravity dominates granular behavior,…
When a ribbon or tube is twisted far enough it forms buckles and wrinkles. Its new geometry can be strikingly ordered, or hopelessly disordered. Here we study this process in a tube with hybrid boundary conditions: one end a cylinder, and…
This study investigates the phenomenon of the early-stage dynamics of impact-induced hardening in dense suspensions, where materials undergo solidification upon impact. While Stokes flow theory traditionally applies to suspensions with…
Transition graphs capture the memory and sequential response of multistable media, by specifying their evolution under external driving. Microscopically, collections of bistable elements, or hysterons, provide a powerful model for these…
A sessile water droplet on a cold substrate freezes into a shape with a sharp apex because of water's expansion upon freezing, yielding a universal tip angle across various conditions. Using \textit{in situ} X-ray imaging, we report that…
Quantifying the in-plane rheology of epithelial monolayers remains challenging due to the difficulty of imposing controlled shear. We introduce a self-driven, rheometer-like assay in which collective migration generates stationary shear…