Soft Matter Modeling and Simulation

The term Soft Matter was used for the first time in 1991 by Pierre-Gilles De Gennes in his Physics Nobel Prize acceptance speech and identifies a wide range of complex materials characterized by mechanical behaviors in between the ones of solids and liquids. Some examples are non-Newtonian liquids, polymers, suspensions, emulsions, foams, gels, granular materials, liquid crystals, and many biological materials. The Soft Matter Modeling and Simulation research area focuses on the study of the mechanics of the above mentioned systems. The investigation is carried out by means of a mathematical description of the systems of interest through macroscopic balance and constitutive equations (Modeling), then solving such models with scientific computers (Simulation). The numerical simulations are preparatory to the design and experimental fabrication of miniaturized devices with simple geometries aiming at the treatment of the systems of interest.

Some examples of the actual research themes in the Soft Matter Modeling and Simulation area are:

  • dynamics of suspensions with viscoelastic matrices,
  • dynamics of biphasic systems with deformable inclusions (suspensions of elastic particles and biological cells, emulsions, foams),
  • microfluidics,
  • free-surface flows,
  • granular materials,
  • active particle dynamics.

Partecipants

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