Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 20: Soft Particles in Flows III (Focus session, joint DY/CPP)
DY 20.4: Talk
Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 15:00–15:15, ZEU 160
Soft particles at a fluid interface — •Jens Harting1,2,3, Hadi Mehrabian2,3, and Jacco Snoeijer3,2 — 1Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Fürther Str. 248, 90429 Nürnberg, Germany — 2Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands — 3Physics of Fluids Group, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
Particles added to a fluid interface can be used as a surface stabilizer in the food, oil and cosmetic industries. As an alternative to rigid particles, it is promising to consider highly deformable particles that can adapt their conformation at the interface. In this study we compute the shapes of soft elastic particles using molecular dynamics simulations of a cross-linked polymer gel, complemented by continuum calculations based on linear elasticity. It is shown that the particle shape is not only affected by the Young's modulus of the particle, but also strongly depends on whether the gel is partially or completely wetting the fluid interface. We find that the molecular simulations for the partially wetting case are very accurately described by the continuum theory. By contrast, when the gel is completely wetting the fluid interface the linear theory breaks down and we reveal that molecular details have a strong influence on the equilibrium shape. See: Soft Matter 12, 1062-1073 (2016)