Understanding Soft Glassy Materials using an Energy Landscape approach
Many soft materials, such as toothpaste, living cells, and mayonnaise, display similar flow behavior
under deformation despite being structurally different on a microscopic scale and the
physical understanding of this phenomenon has long remained unknown. Understanding the flow behavior of different materials
is important to engineer their properties; we wouldn't want our shaving cream to instantly drip down our faces
or have it be too solid to be unable to apply it.
My research focuses on numerically simulating foam dynamics given the difficulties of experimentally doing so due to foams structural complexity and opaqueness.
Below is our simulation of foam slowly ripening over time.
To our knowledge, this is the first 3D microscopic simulation that successfully replicates physical foam dynamics.
With this system, we simulated the trajectory of foam particles (shown as single bubbles) in configuration space and
performed various statistical analysis to derive a mathematical relationship between the configurational path taken by
the bubbles and their flow behavior.
We extend this conclusion to suggest that soft materials may display similar flow behaviors, despite
their differences in microscopic structure, if they share similar characteristics in their configuration space paths.
Related Articles:
Understanding Soft Glassy Materials using an Energy Landscape Approach
Hyun Joo Hwang, Robert A. Riggleman, John C. CrockerNature Materials 15, 1031–1036 (2016).
