Geometric effects in random assemblies of ellipses

Lovrić, Jakov; Kaliman, Sara; Barfuss, Wolfram; Schröder-Turk, Gerd E.; Smith, Ana-Sunčana (2019) Geometric effects in random assemblies of ellipses. Soft Matter, 15 (42). pp. 8566-8577. ISSN 1744-683X

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Official URL: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/201...

Abstract

Assemblies of anisotropic particles commonly appear in studies of active many-body systems. However, in two dimensions, the geometric ramifications of the finite density of such objects are not entirely understood. To fully characterize these effects, we perform an in-depth study of random assemblies generated by a slow compression of frictionless elliptical particles. The obtained configurations are then analysed using the Set Voronoi tessellation, which takes the particle shape into account. Not only do we analyse most scalar and vectorial morphological measures, which are commonly discussed in the literature or which have recently been addressed in experiments, but we also systematically explore the correlations between them. While in a limited range of parameters similarities with findings in 3D assemblies could be identified, important differences are found when a broad range of aspect ratios and packing fractions are considered. The data discussed in this study should thus provide a unique reference set such that geometric effects and differences from random assemblies could be clearly identified in more complex systems, including ones with soft and active particles that are typically found in biological systems.

Item Type:

Article

Additional Information:

We thank Tomaso Aste for useful discussions. ASS and GST thank the German Academic Exchange Service and Universities Australia for travel funding through a collaborative grant scheme. JL, SK and ASS acknowledge the support of the European Research Council (ERC) under grant ERC StGMembranesAct 2013-337283 and the support from the Excellence Cluster: Engineering of Advanced Materials at the FAU Erlangen-Nurnberg. SK and ASS recognize the support of the BigThera project at FAU.

Uncontrolled Keywords:

ellipse ; assembly ; jamming, Voronoi

Subjects:

NATURAL SCIENCES > Mathematics

Divisions:

Division of Physical Chemistry

Projects: