Via computer simulations, we provide evidence that the shear rate induced red blood cell tumbling-to-tank-treading transition also occurs at quite high volume fractions, where collective effects are important. The transition takes place as the ratio of effective suspension stress to the characteristic cell membrane stress exceeds a certain value and does not explicitly depend on volume fraction or cell deformability. This value coincides with that for a transition from an orientationally less ordered to a highly ordered phase. The average cell deformation does not show any signature of transition, but rather follows a simple scaling law independent of volume fraction.

Glass-forming liquids exhibit a rich phenomenology upon confinement. This is often related to the effects arising from wall–fluid interactions. Here we focus on the interesting limit where the separation of the confining walls becomes of the order of a few particle diameters. For a moderately polydisperse, densely packed hard-sphere fluid confined between two smooth hard walls, we show via event-driven molecular dynamics simulations the emergence of a multiple reentrant glass transition scenario upon a variation of the wall separation. Using thermodynamic relations, this reentrant phenomenon is shown to persist also under constant chemical potential. This allows straightforward experimental investigation and opens the way to a variety of applications in micro- and nanotechnology, where channel dimensions are comparable to the size of the contained particles. The results are in line with theoretical predictions obtained by a combination of density functional theory and the mode-coupling theory of the glass transition.

We investigate the wetting behavior of liquid droplets on rough hydrophobic substrates for the case of droplets that are of comparable size to the surface asperities. Using a simple three-dimensional analytical free-energy model, we have shown in a recent letter [M. Gross, F. Varnik, and D. Raabe, EPL 88, 26002 (2009)] that, in addition to the well-known Cassie-Baxter and Wenzel states, there exists a further metastable wetting state where the droplet is immersed into the texture to a finite depth, yet not touching the bottom of the substrate. Due to this new state, a quasistatically evaporating droplet can be saved from going over to the Wenzel state and instead remains close to the top of the surface. In the present paper, we give an in-depth account of the droplet behavior based on the results of extensive computer simulations and an improved theoretical model. In particular, we show that releasing the assumption that the droplet is pinned at the outer edges of the pillars improves the analytical results for larger droplets. Interestingly, all qualitative aspects, such as the existence of an intermediate minimum and the “reentrant transition,” remain unchanged. We also give a detailed description of the evaporation process for droplets of varying sizes. Our results point out the role of droplet size for superhydrophobicity and give hints for achieving the desired wetting properties of technically produced materials.

Recent experiments provide evidence for density variations along shear bands in metallic glasses with a length scale of a few hundred nanometers. Via molecular dynamics simulations of a generic binary glass model, here we show that this is strongly correlated with variations of composition, coordination number, viscosity, and heat generation. Individual shear events along the shear band path show a mean distance of a few nanometers, comparable to recent experimental findings on medium range order. The aforementioned variations result from these localized perturbations, mediated by elasticity.

The coalescence of two resting liquid droplets in a saturated vapor phase is investigated by Lattice Boltzmann simulations in two and three dimensions. We find that, in the viscous regime, the bridge radius obeys a t^1/2-scaling law in time with the characteristic time scale given by the viscous time. Our results differ significantly from the predictions of existing analytical theories of viscous coalescence as well as from experimental observations. While the underlying reason for these deviations is presently unknown, a simple scaling argument is given that describes our results well.

Tissue degradation plays a crucial role in vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and aneurysms. Computational modeling of vascular hemodynamics incorporating both arterial wall mechanics and tissue degradation has been a challenging task. In this study, we propose a novel finite element method-based approach to model the microscopic degradation of arterial walls and its interaction with blood flow. The model is applied to study the combined effects of pulsatile flow and tissue degradation on the deformation and intra-aneurysm hemodynamics. Our computational analysis reveals that tissue degradation leads to a weakening of the aneurysmal wall, which manifests itself in a larger deformation and a smaller von Mises stress. Moreover, simulation results for different heart rates, blood pressures and aneurysm geometries indicate consistently that, upon tissue degradation, wall shear stress increases near the flow-impingement region and decreases away from it. These findings are discussed in the context of recent reports regarding the role of both high and low wall shear stress for the progression and rupture of aneurysms.