arXiv subjects

Anand Jagota

Publications and source records attributed to Anand Jagota.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Role of Wettability, Adhesion, and Instabilities in Transitions During Lubricated Sliding Friction

Lubricated contacts in soft materials are important in various engineering systems and natural settings. Three major lubrication regimes are boundary (BL), mixed (ML), and elasto-hydrodynamic (EHL) lubrication, where the contact region is dry, partially wetted, or fully wetted, respectively. The transition between these regimes is insufficiently understood, especially for soft contacts, which impedes desired control of lubricated sliding friction. Here, we report on the role of solid wettability and adhesion on these transitions. Wettability of glycerol on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface, and adhesion between a glass indenter and PDMS, were varied by exposure of the PDMS to an ultraviolet light-ozone (UV-Ozone) cleaner. By combining friction tests and visualization, we demonstrate that the transition from ML to BL regime is dominated by the wettability of the lubricant; increasing wettability of glycerol makes removal of liquid from the contact region more difficult. Transition from EHL to ML is related to a series of events with increasing normal load, which are thinning of the lubricant layer, sudden jump to contact between the glass indenter and solid substrate across a gap of tens to a few hundreds of nanometers, and attendant elastic instabilities such as wrinkling and stick-slip. These results provide a deeper understanding of transitions in lubricated frictional behavior of soft materials which govern the maximum and minimum friction achievable.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2021

Surface tension and the strain-dependent topography of soft solids

When stretched in one direction, most solids shrink in the transverse directions. In soft silicone gels, however, we observe that small-scale topographical features grow upon stretching. A quantitative analysis of the topography shows that this counter-intuitive response is nearly linear, allowing us to tackle it through a small-strain analysis. We find that the surprising increase of small-scale topography with stretch is due to a delicate interplay of the bulk and surface responses to strain. Specifically, we find that surface tension changes as the material is deformed. This response is expected on general grounds for solid materials, but challenges the standard description of gel- and elastomer-surfaces.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2016

Elastocapillarity: Surface Tension and the Mechanics of Soft Solids

It is widely appreciated that surface tension can dominate the behavior of liquids at small scales. Solids also have surface stresses of a similar magnitude, but they are usually overlooked. However, recent work has shown that these can play an central role in the mechanics of soft solids such as gels. Here, we review this emerging field. We outline the theory of surface stresses, from both mechanical and thermodynamic perspectives, emphasizing the relationship between surface stress and surface energy. We describe a wide range of phenomena at interfaces and contact lines where surface stresses play an important role. We highlight how surface stresses causes dramatic departures from classic theories for wetting (Young-Dupré), adhesion (Johnson-Kendall-Roberts), and composites (Eshelby). A common thread is the importance of the ratio of surface stress to an elastic modulus, which defines a length scale below which surface stresses can dominate.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2015

Indentation of a Rigid Sphere into an Elastic Substrate with Surface Tension and Adhesion

The surface tension of compliant materials such as gels provides resistance to deformation in addition to and sometimes surpassing that due to elasticity. This article studies how surface tension changes the contact mechanics of a small hard sphere indenting a soft elastic substrate. Previous studies have examined the special case where the external load is zero, so contact is driven by adhesion alone. Here, we tackle the much more complicated problem where, in addition to adhesion, deformation is driven by an indentation force. We present an exact solution based on small strain theory. The relation between indentation force (displacement) and contact radius is found to depend on a single dimensionless parameter: $ω=σ(μR)^{-2/3}(9πW_{\textrm{ad}}/4)^{-1/3}$, where $σ$ and $μ$ are the surface tension and shear modulus of the substrate, $R$ is the sphere radius, and $W_{\textrm{ad}}$ is the interfacial work of adhesion. Our theory reduces to the Johnson-Kendall-Roberts theory and Young-Dupré equation in the limits of small and large $ω$ respectively, and compares well with existing experimental data. Our results show that, although surface tension can significantly affect the indentation force, the magnitude of the pull-off load in the partial wetting liquid-like limit is reduced only by 1/3 compared with the JKR limit, and the pull-off behavior is completely determined by $ω$.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2013

Stretching of a Freely Jointed Chain in Two-Dimensions

Although the stretching of polymers and biomolecules is important in numerous settings, their response when confined to two-dimensions is relatively poorly-studied. In this paper, we derive closed-form analytical expressions for the two-dimensional force-extension response of a freely-jointed chain under force control. Our principal results relate end-to-end distance to total force under two modes of stretching: i) when force is applied only to the free of the chain, and ii) when the applied force is distributed uniformly throughout the chain. We have verified both analytical models by Brownian dynamics simulation of molecules adsorbed strongly to a substrate. The total force required is always larger if distributed throughout the chain than when it is only applied to one end of the chain, and the nature of its divergence to infinity as extension approaches contour length is different.

cond-mat.soft↗