Blog posts

Mechanical heterogeneities in colloidal gels

Growing mechanical heterogeneity in colloidal gels approaching the rigidity transition. Snapshots of a dense (blue) and dilute (orange) gel are on the left. Displacement fields correspond to the linear response of a local strain applied on the gel backbone.

Micromechanics of non-linear modes

The micromechanics of non-linear modes (orange displacement field) allows one to measure the coupling between soft spots in structural glasses and predict the sequence of plastic instabilities prior to the nucleation of a shear band (blue cumulative plastic deformation).

Local yield stress after shear banding

Local yield stress map extracted from an analytical nonlinear strain expansion of the stress inside spherical cavities that are embedded in a affinely deformed frozen matrix. Blue spots correspond to small stress activations, highlighting the presence of a permanent strain localization.

Tensorial plastic indicator

Local product between the first and second derivative of the potential energy with respect to the strain for a simple shear deformation. Blue and red regions will destabilize and stabilize upon loading, respectively. Large Eshelby-like fields mark the presence of soft defects.