Dynamic Critical Response in Damped Random Spring Networks

he isostatic state plays a central role in organizing the response of many amorphous materials. We construct a diverging length scale in nearly isostatic spring networks that is defined both above and below isostaticity and at finite frequencies and relate the length scale to viscoelastic response. Numerical measurements verify that proximity to isostaticity controls the viscosity, shear modulus, and creep of random networks.Process and EnergyMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin

Normal stresses, contraction, and stiffening in sheared elastic networks

When elastic solids are sheared, a nonlinear effect named after Poynting gives rise to normal stresses or changes in volume. We provide a novel relation between the Poynting effect and the microscopic Grüneisen parameter, which quantifies how stretching shifts vibrational modes. By applying this relation to random spring networks, a minimal model for, e.g., biopolymer gels and solid foams, we find that networks contract or develop tension because they vibrate faster when stretched. The amplitude of the Poynting effect is sensitive to the network's linear elastic moduli, which can be tuned via its preparation protocol and connectivity. Finally, we show that the Poynting effect can be used to predict the finite strain scale where the material stiffens under shear.Engineering Thermodynamic

Nonlocal effects in inhomogeneous flows of soft athermal disks

We numerically investigate nonlocal effects on inhomogeneous flows of soft athermal disks close to but below their jamming transition. We employ molecular dynamics to simulate Kolmogorov flows, in which a sinusoidal flow profile with fixed wave number is externally imposed, resulting in a spatially inhomogeneous shear rate. We find that the resulting rheology is strongly wave-number-dependent, and that particle migration, while present, is not sufficient to describe the resulting stress profiles within a conventional local model. We show that, instead, stress profiles can be captured with nonlocal constitutive relations that account for gradients to fourth order. Unlike nonlocal flow in yield stress fluids, we find no evidence of a diverging length scale.Engineering Thermodynamic

Viscous forces and bulk viscoelasticity near jamming

When weakly jammed packings of soft, viscous, non-Brownian spheres are probed mechanically, they respond with a complex admixture of elastic and viscous effects. While many of these effects are understood for specific, approximate models of the particles' interactions, there are a number of proposed force laws in the literature, especially for viscous interactions. We numerically measure the complex shear modulus G* of jammed packings for various viscous force laws that damp relative velocities between pairs of contacting particles or between a particle and the continuous fluid phase. We find a surprising sensitive dependence of G* on the viscous force law: the system may or may not display dynamic critical scaling, and the exponents describing how G* scales with frequency can change. We show that this sensitivity is closely linked to manner in which viscous damping couples to floppy-like, non-affine motion, which is prominent near jamming.Engineering Thermodynamic

Moduli and modes in the Mikado model

We determine how low frequency vibrational modes control the elastic shear modulus of Mikado networks, a minimal mechanical model for semi-flexible fiber networks. From prior work it is known that when the fiber bending modulus is sufficiently small, (i) the shear modulus of 2D Mikado networks scales as a power law in the fiber line density, G ∼ ρα+1, and (ii) the networks also possess an anomalous abundance of soft (low-frequency) vibrational modes with a characteristic frequency ωκ ∼ ρβ/2. While it has been suggested that α and β are identical, the preponderance of evidence indicates that α is larger than theoretical predictions for β. We resolve this inconsistency by measuring the vibrational density of states in Mikado networks for the first time. Supported by these results, we then demonstrate analytically that α = β + 1. In so doing, we uncover new insights into the coupling between soft modes and shear, as well as the origin of the crossover from bending- to stretching-dominated response. This journal is Engineering ThermodynamicsMulti Phase System

Sticky Matters: Jamming and Rigid Cluster Statistics with Attractive Particle Interactions

While the large majority of theoretical and numerical studies of the jamming transition consider athermal packings of purely repulsive spheres, real complex fluids and soft solids generically display attraction between particles. By studying the statistics of rigid clusters in simulations of soft particles with an attractive shell, we present evidence for two distinct jamming scenarios. Strongly attractive systems undergo a continuous transition in which rigid clusters grow and ultimately diverge in size at a critical packing fraction. Purely repulsive and weakly attractive systems jam via a first-order transition, with no growing cluster size. We further show that the weakly attractive scenario is a finite size effect, so that for any nonzero attraction strength, a sufficiently large system will fall in the strongly attractive universality class. We therefore expect attractive jamming to be generic in the laboratory and in nature.Engineering Thermodynamic

Tuneable normal stresses in hyperelastic emulsions

We show that foams and emulsions can display a fundamentally different normal response to a simple shear deformation. While foams dilate or push outwards on the shearing surfaces, known as a positive Poynting effect, in emulsions the Poynting effect can have either sign and can be tuned by changing the emulsion properties. We relate the sign of the Poynting effect to the presence of a compressible contact network supported by adhesive contacts. When the concentration of surfactant in the continuous phase is low, the emulsions are nonadhesive and push outward on their shearing surfaces, as do the foams. When the surfactant concentration is increased, the emulsions become adhesive due to depletion interactions, and the Poynting effect changes sign. We argue that the adhesive contact network develops a shear modulus that stiffens in response to dilation, which leads to the negative Poynting effect. Multi Phase System

Nonlocal elasticity near jamming in frictionless soft spheres

We use simulations of frictionless soft sphere packings to identify novel constitutive relations for linear elasticity near the jamming transition. By forcing packings at varying wavelengths, we directly access their transverse and longitudinal compliances. These are found to be wavelength dependent, in violation of conventional (local) linear elasticity. Crossovers in the compliances select characteristic length scales, which signify the appearance of nonlocal effects. Two of these length scales diverge as the pressure vanishes, indicating that critical effects near jamming control the breakdown of local elasticity. We expect these nonlocal constitutive relations to be applicable to a wide range of weakly jammed solids, including emulsions, foams, and granulates.Engineering Thermodynamic

Jamming and irreversibility

We investigate irreversibility in soft frictionless disk packings on approach to the unjamming transition. Using simulations of shear reversal tests, we study the relationship between plastic work and irreversible rearrangements of the contact network. Infinitesimal strains are reversible, while any finite strain generates plastic work and contact changes in a sufficiently large packing. The number of irreversible contact changes grows with strain, and the stress–strain curve displays a crossover from linear to increasingly nonlinear response when the fraction of irreversible contact changes approaches unity.Engineering Thermodynamic

Entropy Maximization in the Force Network Ensemble for Granular Solids

A long-standing issue in the area of granular media is the tail of the force distribution, in particular, whether this is exponential, Gaussian, or even some other form. Here we resolve the issue for the case of the force network ensemble in two dimensions. We demonstrate that conservation of the total area of a reciprocal tiling, a direct consequence of local force balance, is crucial for predicting the local stress distribution. Maximizing entropy while conserving the tiling area and total pressure leads to a distribution of local pressures with a generically Gaussian tail that is in excellent agreement with numerics, both with and without friction and for two different contact networks.Process and EnergyMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin