Model for the Elasticity of Compressed Emulsions

Martin-D. Lacasse; Gary S. Grest; Dov Levine; T. G. Mason; D. A. Weitz

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.3448

Model for the Elasticity of Compressed Emulsions

Martin-D. Lacasse, Gary S. Grest, Dov Levine, T. G. Mason, and D. A. Weitz

Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 3448 – Published 29 April 1996

Abstract

We present a new model to describe the unusual elastic properties of compressed emulsions. The response of a single droplet under compression is investigated numerically for different Wigner-Seitz cells. The response is softer than harmonic, and depends on the coordination number of the droplet. Using these results, we propose a new effective interdroplet potential which is used to determine the elastic response of a monodisperse collection of disordered droplets as a function of volume fraction. Our results are in excellent agreement with recent experiments. This suggests that anharmonicity together with disorder are responsible for the quasilinear increase of $G$ and $Π$ observed at $ϕ_{c}$ .

Received 13 December 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.3448

Authors & Affiliations

Martin-D. Lacasse¹, Gary S. Grest¹, Dov Levine², T. G. Mason^1,*, and D. A. Weitz^1,†

¹Corporate Research Science Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Co., Annandale, New Jersey 08801
²Department of Physics, Technion, Haifa, 32000 Israel

^*Present address: Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, Avenue A. Schweitzer, F-33600 Pessac, France.
^†Present address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104.