Developing Novel Frameworks for Many-Body Ensembles
Abstract
In this project we have made strides towards developing a mesoscopic statistical framework (MSF) to model non-equilibrium ensembles comprised of large numbers of simple components. As a testbed, we have considered inhomogeneity formation in driven non-equilibrium systems, namely we seek to predict whether inhomogeneities appear and to develop a description of inhomogeneity formation that is valid across particle and system scales. These systems can be tricky to analyze as mesoscale structures can lead to highly nonlinear macroscopic responses e.g. near a critical concentration, the effective yield stress and viscosity of a suspension may increase by many orders of magnitude with the addition of a small number of particles. Historically these systems have been modeled either by tracking individual particles (which rapidly becomes prohibitively computationally expensive as the number of particles increases), or by taking a phenomenological continuum approach in which the nonlinearities are measured experimentally for specific systems rather than derived from microscopic principles. In this project we have developed a hybrid approach which operates at the mesoscale and hence reduces computational cost (relative to MD approaches) while maintaining a direct link between effective material properties and microscopic dynamics.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 17, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1011047
Entities
People
- Anette E. Hosoi
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology