arXiv subjects

Klebert Feitosa

Publications and source records attributed to Klebert Feitosa.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Experimental observations of fractal landscape dynamics in a dense emulsion

Many soft and biological materials display so-called 'soft glassy' dynamics; their constituents undergo anomalous random motions and complex cooperative rearrangements. A recent simulation model of one soft glassy material, a coarsening foam, suggested that the random motions of its bubbles are due to the system configuration moving over a fractal energy landscape in high-dimensional space. Here we show that the salient geometrical features of such high-dimensional fractal landscapes can be explored and reliably quantified, using empirical trajectory data from many degrees of freedom, in a model-free manner. For a mayonnaise-like dense emulsion, analysis of the observed trajectories of oil droplets quantitatively reproduces the high-dimensional fractal geometry of the configuration path and its associated energy minima generated using a computational model. That geometry in turn drives the droplets' complex random motion observed in real space. Our results indicate that experimental studies can elucidate whether the similar dynamics in different soft and biological materials may also be due to fractal landscape dynamics.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2015

Foams Stabilized by Tricationic Amphiphilic Surfactants

The unique surface properties of amphiphilic molecules have made them widely used in applications where foaming, emulsifying or coating processes are needed. Novel surfactant architectures with multi-cephalic and multi-tailed molecules have reportedly enhanced their anti-bacterial activity in connection with tail length and the nature of the head group, but their ability to produce and stabilize foam is mostly unknown. Here we report on experiments with tris-cationic, triple-headed, double- and single-tailed amphiphiles and their foamability and foam stability with respect to head group, tail number and tail length. The amphiphiles are composed of an aromatic mesitylene core and three benzylic amonium bromide groups, with alkyl chains attached to one or two of the head groups. Whereas shorter (14 carbons in length) double-tailed molecules are found to produce very stable foams, foams made with single tail molecules of the same length show poor foamability and stability, and foams with longer (16 carbons in length) double-tail molecules do not foam with the methods used. By contrast, the structure of the non-tail-bearing head group (trimethylammonium vs. pyridinium) has no impact on foamability. Furthermore, observations of the coarsening rate at nearly constant liquid content indicate that the enhanced foam stability is a result of lower gas permeability through the surfactant monolayer. Finally, the critical aggregation concentration (CAC) of the surfactants demonstrates to be a good predictor of foamability and foam stability for these small molecule surfactants. This results inform how surfactant architecture can be tailored to produce stable foams.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2009

Particle kinematics in a dilute, 3-dimensional, vibration-fluidized granular medium

We report an experimental study of particle kinematics in a 3-dimensional system of inelastic spheres fluidized by intense vibration. The motion of particles in the interior of the medium is tracked by high speed video imaging, yielding a spatially-resolved measurement of the velocity distribution. The distribution is wider than a Gaussian and broadens continuously with increasing volume fraction. The deviations from a Gaussian distribution for this boundary-driven system are different in sign and larger in magnitude than predictions for homogeneously driven systems. We also find correlations between velocity components which grow with increasing volume fraction.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2004

A fluidized granular medium as an instance of the Fluctuation Theorem

We study the statistics of the power flux into a collection of inelastic beads maintained in a fluidized steady-state by external mechanical driving. The power shows large fluctuations, including frequent large negative fluctuations, about its average value. The relative probabilities of positive and negative fluctuations in the power flux are in close accord with the Fluctuation Theorem of Gallavotti and Cohen, even at time scales shorter than those required by the theorem. We also compare an effective temperature that emerges from this analysis to the kinetic granular temperature.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2001

Breakdown of Energy Equipartition in a 2D Binary Vibrated Granular Gas

We report experiments on the equipartition of kinetic energy between grains made of two different materials in a mixture of grains vibrated in 2 dimensions. In general, the two types of grains do not attain the same granular temperature, Tg = 1/2m v^2. However, the ratio of the two temperatures is constant in the bulk of the system and independent of the vibration velocity. The ratio depends strongly on the ratio of mass densities of the grains, but is not sensitive to the inelasticity of grains. Also, this ratio is insensitive to compositional variables of the mixture such as the number fraction of each component and the total number density. We conclude that a single granular temperature, as traditionally defined, does not characterize a multi-component mixture.

cond-mat.soft↗