Mesoscale dynamics and plasticity of soft materials

Mesoscale dynamics and plasticity of Soft Materials. We investigated the different dynamical properties of soft-glassy materials (SGMs), such as emulsions, foams, and gels, characterised by a wide range of applicability. Their nontrivial dynamics and rheology have origin in their complex structure: they consist of elementary constituent (soft domains) dispersed in a continuous matrix. The fluidisation mechanism in SGMs is generated by the occurrence of plastic rearrangements, i.e. configurational changes in the topological structure. By varying the mechanical solicitation (internal, external or dynamic), in turn, different is the triggering of plastic rearrangements. In this Ph.D. thesis, we studied SGMs by using multicomponent thermal lattice Boltzmann numerical simulations. The fascinating aspect of these model systems is the emergence of various scales of motion (nanoscopic, mesoscopic and macroscopic scales) and the large variety of explored physical phenomena.