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The Preparation of Electrohydrodynamic Bridges from Polar Dielectric Liquids
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Does gravity cause load-bearing bridges in colloidal and granular systems?
M C Jenkins1, M D Haw, G C Barker
1SUPA and The School of Physics & Astronomy, The University of Edinburgh, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, United Kingdom.
Physical Review Letters
|August 16, 2011
Summary
Bridges in particulate packings are inherent structures. Their size distribution depends solely on the mean number of neighbors, not gravity, suggesting loads exploit existing bridges in dense materials.
Area of Science:
- Physics of granular and soft matter
- Statistical mechanics of disordered systems
Background:
- Particulate packings exhibit complex structures influencing material properties.
- Understanding load-bearing mechanisms, like 'bridges,' is crucial for predicting material behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To experimentally investigate the relationship between gravity and load-bearing 'bridges' in colloidal packings.
- To determine how factors like gravity, volume fraction, and interactions affect bridge statistics.
Main Methods:
- Experimental determination of bridge statistics in colloidal packings.
- Systematic variation of effective gravity (magnitude and direction), volume fraction, and interparticle interactions.
Main Results:
- Bridge size distributions were found to depend only on the mean number of neighbors.
- A universal bridge size distribution was identified, consistent with granular material simulations.
- Applied loads were shown to exploit pre-existing bridges within the packing.
Conclusions:
- Load-bearing bridges are inherent in dense particulate packings.
- The statistics of these bridges are governed by local connectivity (mean number of neighbors), not external forces like gravity.
- This finding has implications for understanding the mechanical stability and failure of granular and colloidal systems.
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