Search results for "Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter"
showing 4 items of 364 documents
Theory and Simulation of Multiphase Polymer Systems
2010
The theory of multiphase polymer systems has a venerable tradition. The 'classical' theory of polymer demixing, the Flory-Huggins theory, was developed already in the forties of the last century. It is still the starting point for most current approaches -- be they improved theories for polymer (im)miscibility that take into account the microscopic structure of blends more accurately, or sophisticated field theories that allow to study inhomogeneous multicomponent systems of polymers with arbitrary architectures in arbitrary geometries. In contrast, simulations of multiphase polymer systems are relatively young. They are still limited by the fact that one must simulate a large number of lar…
Equilibrium fluid-crystal interfacial free energy of bcc-crystallizing aqueous suspensions of polydisperse charged spheres
2015
The interfacial free energy is a central quantity in crystallization from the meta-stable melt. In suspensions of charged colloidal spheres, nucleation and growth kinetics can be accurately measured from optical experiments. In previous work, from this data effective non-equilibrium values for the interfacial free energy between the emerging bcc-nuclei and the adjacent melt in dependence on the chemical potential difference between melt phase and crystal phase were derived using classical nucleation theory. A strictly linear increase of the interfacial free energy was observed as a function of increased meta-stability. Here, we further analyze this data for five aqueous suspensions of charg…
Mechanics of invagination and folding: Hybridized instabilities when one soft tissue grows on another
2015
We address the folding induced by differential growth in soft layered solids via an elementary model that consists of a soft growing neo-Hookean elastic layer adhered to a deep elastic substrate. As the layer/substrate modulus ratio is varied from above unity towards zero we find a first transition from supercritical smooth folding followed by cusping of the valleys to direct subcritical cusped folding, then another to supercritical cusped folding. Beyond threshold the high amplitude fold spacing converges to about four layer thicknesses for many modulus ratios. In three dimensions the instability gives rise to a wide variety of morphologies, including almost degenerate zigzag and triple-ju…
Estimation of the mechanical properties of the eye through the study of its vibrational modes.
2017
Measuring the eye's mechanical properties in vivo and with minimally invasive techniques can be the key for individualized solutions to a number of eye pathologies. The development of such techniques largely relies on a computational modelling of the eyeball and, it optimally requires the synergic interplay between experimentation and numerical simulation. In Astrophysics and Geophysics the remote measurement of structural properties of the systems of their realm is performed on the basis of (helio-)seismic techniques. As a biomechanical system, the eyeball possesses normal vibrational modes encompassing rich information about its structure and mechanical properties. However, the integral a…