Issue 2, 2023

The effective shear modulus of a random isotropic suspension of monodisperse liquid n-spheres: from the dilute limit to the percolation threshold

Abstract

A numerical and analytical study is made of the macroscopic or homogenized mechanical response of a random isotropic suspension of liquid n-spherical inclusions (n = 2, 3), each having identical initial radius A, in an elastomer subjected to small quasistatic deformations. Attention is restricted to the basic case when the elastomer is an isotropic incompressible linear elastic solid, the liquid making up the inclusions is an incompressible linear elastic fluid, and the interfaces separating the solid elastomer from the liquid inclusions feature a constant initial surface tension γ. For such a class of suspensions, it has been recently established that the homogenized mechanical response is that of a standard linear elastic solid and hence, for the specific type of isotropic incompressible suspension of interest here, one that can be characterized solely by an effective shear modulus [small mu, Greek, macron]n in terms of the shear modulus μ of the elastomer, the initial elasto-capillary number eCa = γ/2μA, the volume fraction c of inclusions, and the space dimension n. This paper presents numerical solutions—generated by means of a recently introduced finite-element scheme—for [small mu, Greek, macron]n over a wide range of elasto-capillary numbers eCa and volume fractions of inclusions c. Complementary to these, a formula is also introduced for [small mu, Greek, macron]n that is in quantitative agreement with all the numerical solutions, as well as with the asymptotic results for [small mu, Greek, macron]n in the limit of dilute volume fraction of inclusions Image ID:d2sm01219g-t1.gif and at percolation Image ID:d2sm01219g-t2.gif. The proposed formula has the added theoretical merit of being an iterated-homogenization solution.

Graphical abstract: The effective shear modulus of a random isotropic suspension of monodisperse liquid n-spheres: from the dilute limit to the percolation threshold

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Sep 2022
Accepted
22 Nov 2022
First published
23 Nov 2022

Soft Matter, 2023,19, 208-224

Author version available

The effective shear modulus of a random isotropic suspension of monodisperse liquid n-spheres: from the dilute limit to the percolation threshold

K. Ghosh, V. Lefèvre and O. Lopez-Pamies, Soft Matter, 2023, 19, 208 DOI: 10.1039/D2SM01219G

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