Issue 29, 2019

The role of deformability in determining the structural and mechanical properties of bubbles and emulsions

Abstract

We perform computational studies of jammed particle packings in two dimensions undergoing isotropic compression using the well-characterized soft particle (SP) model and deformable particle (DP) model that we developed for bubbles and emulsions. In the SP model, circular particles are allowed to overlap, generating purely repulsive forces. In the DP model, particles minimize their perimeter, while deforming at fixed area to avoid overlap during compression. We compare the structural and mechanical properties of jammed packings generated using the SP and DP models as a function of the packing fraction ρ, instead of the reduced number density ϕ. We show that near jamming onset the excess contact number Δz = zzJ and shear modulus G scale as Δρ0.5 in the large system limit for both models, where Δρ = ρρJ and zJ ≈ 4 and ρJ ≈ 0.842 are the values at jamming onset. Δz and G for the SP and DP models begin to differ for ρ ≳ 0.88. In this regime, ΔzG can be described by a sum of two power-laws in Δρ, i.e. ΔzGC0Δρ0.5 + C1Δρ1.0 to lowest order. We show that the ratio C1/C0 is much larger for the DP model compared to that for the SP model. We also characterize the void space in jammed packings as a function of ρ. We find that the DP model can describe the formation of Plateau borders as ρ → 1. We further show that the results for z and the shape factor A versus ρ for the DP model agree with recent experimental studies of foams and emulsions.

Graphical abstract: The role of deformability in determining the structural and mechanical properties of bubbles and emulsions

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Apr 2019
Accepted
20 Jun 2019
First published
21 Jun 2019

Soft Matter, 2019,15, 5854-5865

Author version available

The role of deformability in determining the structural and mechanical properties of bubbles and emulsions

A. Boromand, A. Signoriello, J. Lowensohn, C. S. Orellana, E. R. Weeks, F. Ye, M. D. Shattuck and C. S. O'Hern, Soft Matter, 2019, 15, 5854 DOI: 10.1039/C9SM00775J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements