Cooperative motion in dense suspensions, granular matter, and colloidal crystals

Dense particle flows are common and of particular importance for many processes in both geological and industrial systems.While particles flow easy at dilute conditions they will all sooner or later either jam or enter other dynamical arrested states as the solid volume fraction increases.

This project will study the cooperative motions of such dense particle flows close to or in their arrested states by state-of-the-art numerical simulations.

In three work packages I will advance our knowledge about dense particles flows and colloidal crystals by: (I) study the rheology of elongated particles in steady and unsteady flows close to their arrested states, (II) resolve the long-standing question about the microscopic origin of the non-local rheology seen in dense particle flows at inhomogeneous flow conditions, and (III) investigate the vibrational phonon spectra of colloidal crystals.In doing so I will open up a new research field in rheology of elongated particles and resolve one long-standing problem within Soft Matter: what is microscopic origin of the creep flows?

I will also create a roadmap to how to tailor colloidal crystals´ heat capacities and phononic properties.

Material, nanotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries utilising dense particle flows usually suffer performance issues due to a lack of a good understanding of these flows, as problems they are facing lack scientific explanations. My project will fill some of these knowledge gaps.