Aleatory Architecture
A large arch assembled from randomly placed granular particles, each with the shape of a twisted Z. The arch is solid-like rigid and load-bearing, despite being structurally disordered and glassy. This is an image of Project Z-Form, an installation in collaboration with Chicago artist Dan Peterman.
For more info see
[1] S. Keller and H. M. Jaeger, Aleatory Architectures, Granular Matter 18, 29 (2016). http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10035-016-0629-s
[2] K. A. Murphy, L. K. Roth, D. Peterman, and H. M. Jaeger, Aleatory Construction Based on Jamming: Stability Through Self-Confinement, Architectural Design (special issue on Autonomous Assembly: Designing for a New Era of Collective Construction; ed. S. Tibbits) 187, 74-81 (2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ad.2198"
Nanoparticles Decorating a Copolymer Film
Ultrathin diblock copolymer films of polystyrene (PS) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) micro-phaseseparate into a fingerprint-like pattern. Here the pattern wavelength is about 50nm. When gold atoms are deposited onto this pattern, they preferentially move to one of the two diblock domains, where they aggregate and form small nanoparticles.
Force Chains in Dense Suspension
Snapshot from a simulation of a dense, bidisperse suspension comprised of small and large particles in a liquid. Under shear, particles are forced into contact, which generates particle chains and results in strong shear thickening. In this image, large particles and any chains of small particles connecting large ones are fully rendered, while contacts between individual small particles are shown as red lines.
Acoustically Levitated Particles
A small group of particles (each ~200um in diam.) freely floating in the pressure nodal plane of a standing sound wave. Sound scattering between the particles generates a force field within that nodal plane, which attracts the particles into contact.