Effect of elasticity on phase separation in heterogeneous systems
Name
2004.13238.pdf
Description
Submitted version
Size
970.04 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
4aa6d34cb954476d3e25661c3e2d4c67
Author(s)
Kothari, Mrityunjay
Cohen, Tal
Date Issued
2020
Journal
Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
Mrityunjay Kothari, Tal Cohen, Effect of elasticity on phase separation in heterogeneous systems, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Volume 145, 2020
Version
Original manuscript
Abstract
© 2020 Physical systems consisting of an elastic matrix permeated by fluid mixture are ubiquitous, with examples ranging from morphogenesis of a single biological cell to the migration of greenhouse gases in sediments. Recent experimental studies show that the presence of the elastic networks in these systems significantly alters their phase-separation response by imposing an energetic cost to the growth of droplets. However, a quantitative understanding of the role played by elasticity is lacking. Our paper bridges this gap by building a comprehensive theoretical framework to analyze the effect of elasticity on the phase separation of a binary mixture in soft, nonlinear solids. We employ an energy-based approach that captures both the short-time quasi-equilibrium and the long-time evolution of the phase separation, in elastically homogeneous as well as heterogeneous materials, to determine the constitutive sensitivities. Our theory predicts a droplet dissolution front in heterogeneous materials. Crucially, we also find a nonlinear effect of elasticity on the dynamics, which challenges the current understanding in the literature. We quantify the thermodynamic driving forces to identify diffusion-limited and dissolution-limited regimes of front propagation. Our findings are applicable to a variety of material systems including food, metals, and aquatic sediments, and further substantiate the hypothesis that biological systems exploit such mechanisms to regulate their function.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JMPS.2020.104153
