Chiral knife edge: A simplified rattleback to illustrate spin inversion.

We present the chiral knife edge rattleback, an alternative version of previously presented systems that exhibit spin inversion. We offer a full treatment of the model using qualitative arguments, analytical solutions as well as numerical results. We treat a reduced, one-mode problem which not only contains the essence of the physics of spin inversion, but that also exhibits an unexpected connection to the Chaplygin sleigh, providing insight into the nonholonomic structure of the problem.

From shear bands to earthquakes in a model granular material with contact aging.

We perform molecular dynamics simulations of homogeneous athermal systems of poly-disperse soft discs under shear. For purely repulsive interactions between particles, and under a confining external pressure, a monotonous flow curve (strain rate stress) starting at a critical yield stress is obtained, with deformation distributing uniformly in the system, on average. Then we add a short range attractive contribution to the interaction potential that increases its intensity as particles remain in contact for a progressively longer time, mimicking an aging effect in the system.

Down-hill creep of a granular material under expansion/contraction cycles.

We investigate the down-hill creep of an inclined layer of granular material caused by quasi-static oscillatory variations of the size of the particles. The size variation is taken to be maximum at the surface and decreasing with depth, as it may be argued to occur in the case of a granular soil affected by atmospheric conditions. The material is modeled as an athermal two dimensional polydisperse system of soft disks under the action of gravity.

Quasistatic deformation of yield stress materials: Homogeneous or localized?

We analyze a mesoscopic model of a shear stress material with a three-dimensional slab geometry, under an external quasistatic deformation of a simple shear type. Relaxation is introduced in the model as a mechanism by which an unperturbed system achieves progressively mechanically more stable configurations. Although in all cases deformation occurs via localized plastic events (avalanches), we find qualitatively different behavior depending on the degree of relaxation in the model.

Volume-shear coupling in a mesoscopic model of amorphous materials.

We present a two-dimensional mesoscopic model of a yield stress material that includes the possibility of local volume fluctuations coupled to shear in such a way that the shear strength of the material decreases as the local density decreases. The model reproduces a number of effects well known in the phenomenology of this kind of material. In particular, we find that the volume of the sample increases as the deformation rate increases; shear bands are no longer oriented at 45^{∘} with respect to the principal axis of the applied stress (as in the absence of volume-shear coupling); and homogeneous deformation becomes unstable at low enough deformation rates if volume-shear coupling is strong enough.

Guanidine Carboxy Zinc Complexes for the Chemical Recycling of Renewable Polyesters.

Our previously published non-toxic guanidine carboxy Zn catalysts, suitable for lactide ring opening polymerisation (ROP) under industrially preferred melt conditions, have been tested towards the alcoholysis of renewable polyesters. A structure-reactivity relationship has been found for the methanolysis of PLA in anhydrous THF, dependent on the substituents introduced at the ligand backbone. Using the unsubstituted "TMGasme" catalyst C2, a polyester conversion of 41 % was reached after 5 h at 60 °C.

The fate of shear-oscillated amorphous solids.

The behavior of shear-oscillated amorphous materials is studied using a coarse-grained model. Samples are prepared at different degrees of annealing and then subjected to athermal and quasi-static oscillatory deformations at various fixed amplitudes. The steady-state reached after several oscillations is fully determined by the initial preparation and the oscillation amplitude, as seen from stroboscopic stress and energy measurements.

Properties of the density of shear transformations in driven amorphous solids.

The strain load Δthat triggers consecutive avalanches is a key observable in the slow deformation of amorphous solids. Its temporally averaged value ⟨Δ⟩ displays a non-trivial system-size dependence that constitutes one of the distinguishing features of the yielding transition. Details of this dependence are not yet fully understood.

Thermally rounded depinning of an elastic interface on a washboard potential.

The thermal rounding of the depinning transition of an elastic interface sliding on a washboard potential is studied through analytic arguments and very accurate numerical simulations. We confirm the standard view that well below the depinning threshold the average velocity can be calculated considering thermally activated nucleation of defects. However, we find that the straightforward extension of this analysis to near or above the depinning threshold does not fully describe the physics of the thermally assisted motion.

Tensorial description of the plasticity of amorphous composites.

We use a continuous mesoscopic model to address the yielding properties of plastic composites, formed by a host material and inclusions with different elastic and/or plastic properties. We investigate the flow properties of the composed material under a uniform externally applied deviatoric stress. We show that due to the heterogeneities induced by the inclusions, a scalar modeling in terms of a single deviatoric strain of the same symmetry as the externally applied deformation gives inaccurate results.

Elastic Interfaces on Disordered Substrates: From Mean-Field Depinning to Yielding.

We consider a model of an elastic manifold driven on a disordered energy landscape, with generalized long range elasticity. Varying the form of the elastic kernel by progressively allowing for the existence of zero modes, the model interpolates smoothly between mean-field depinning and finite dimensional yielding. We find that the critical exponents of the model change smoothly in this process.

Criticality in elastoplastic models of amorphous solids with stress-dependent yielding rates.

We analyze the behavior of different elastoplastic models approaching the yielding transition. We propose two kinds of rules for the local yielding events: yielding occurs above the local threshold either at a constant rate or with a rate that increases as the square root of the stress excess. We establish a family of "static" universal critical exponents which do not depend on this dynamic detail of the model rules: in particular, the exponents for the avalanche size distribution P(S) ∼Sf(S/L) and the exponents describing the density of sites at the verge of yielding, which we find to be of the form P(x) ≃P(0) + x with P(0) ∼L controlling the extremal statistics.

Critical exponents of the yielding transition of amorphous solids.

We investigate numerically the yielding transition of a two-dimensional model amorphous solid under external shear. We use a scalar model in terms of values of the total local strain, derived from the full (tensorial) description of the elastic interactions in the system, in which plastic deformations are accounted for by introducing a stochastic "plastic disorder" potential. This scalar model is seen to be equivalent to a collection of Prandtl-Tomlinson particles, which are coupled through an Eshelby quadrupolar kernel.

Different universality classes at the yielding transition of amorphous systems.

We study the yielding transition of a two-dimensional amorphous system under shear by using a mesoscopic elasto-plastic model. The model combines a full (tensorial) description of the elastic interactions in the system and the possibility of structural reaccommodations that are responsible for the plastic behavior. The possible structural reaccommodations are encoded in the form of a "plastic disorder" potential, which is chosen independently at each position of the sample to account for local heterogeneities.

Creep and thermal rounding close to the elastic depinning threshold.

We study the slow stochastic dynamics near the depinning threshold of an elastic interface in a random medium by solving a particularly suited model of hopping interacting particles that belongs to the quenched-Edwards-Wilkinson depinning universality class. The model allows us to compare the cases of uniformly activated and Arrhenius activated hops. In the former case, the velocity accurately follows a standard scaling law of the force and noise intensity with the analog of the thermal rounding exponent satisfying a modified "hyperscaling" relation.

Avalanche-size distributions in mean-field plastic yielding models.

We discuss the size distribution N(S) of avalanches occurring at the yielding transition of mean-field (i.e., Hebraud-Lequeux) models of amorphous solids.

Frictional dynamics of viscoelastic solids driven on a rough surface.

We study the effect of viscoelastic dynamics on the frictional properties of a (mean-field) spring-block system pulled on a rough surface by an external drive. When the drive moves at constant velocity V, two dynamical regimes are observed: at fast driving, above a critical threshold V(c), the system slides at the drive velocity and displays a friction force with velocity weakening. Below V(c) the steady sliding becomes unstable and a stick-slip regime sets in.

Aftershock production rate of driven viscoelastic interfaces.

We study analytically and by numerical simulations the statistics of the aftershocks generated after large avalanches in models of interface depinning that include viscoelastic relaxation effects. We find in all the analyzed cases that the decay law of aftershocks with time can be understood by considering the typical roughness of the interface and its evolution due to relaxation. In models where there is a single viscoelastic relaxation time there is an exponential decay of the number of aftershocks with time.

Viscoelastic effects in avalanche dynamics: a key to earthquake statistics.

In many complex systems a continuous input of energy over time can be suddenly relaxed in the form of avalanches. Conventional avalanche models disregard the possibility of internal dynamical effects in the interavalanche periods, and thus miss basic features observed in some real systems. We address this issue by studying a model with viscoelastic relaxation, showing how coherent oscillations of the stress field can emerge spontaneously.

Forest-fire analogy to explain the b value of the Gutenberg-Richter law for earthquakes.

The Drössel-Schwabl model of forest fires can be interpreted in a coarse-grained sense as a model for the stress distribution in a single planar fault. Fires in the model are then translated to earthquakes. I show that when a second class of trees that propagate fire only after some finite time is introduced in the model, secondary fires (analogous to aftershocks) are generated, and the statistics of events becomes quantitatively compatible with the Gutenberg-Richter law for earthquakes, with a realistic value of the b exponent.

Tuning spreading and avalanche-size exponents in directed percolation with modified activation probabilities.

We consider the directed percolation process as a prototype of systems displaying a nonequilibrium phase transition into an absorbing state. The model is in a critical state when the activation probability is adjusted at some precise value p(c). Criticality is lost as soon as the probability to activate sites at the first attempt, p(1), is changed.

Seismic cycles, size of the largest events, and the avalanche size distribution in a model of seismicity.

We address several questions on the behavior of a numerical model recently introduced to study seismic phenomena, which includes relaxation in the plates as a key ingredient. First, we make an analysis of the scaling of the largest events with system size and show that, when parameters are appropriately interpreted, the typical size of the largest events scale as the system size, without the necessity to tune any parameter. Second, we show that the temporal activity in the model is inherently nonstationary and obtain from here justification and support for the concept of a "seismic cycle" in the temporal evolution of seismic activity.

Creep rupture of materials: insights from a fiber bundle model with relaxation.

I adapted a model recently introduced in the context of seismic phenomena to study creep rupture of materials. It consists of linear elastic fibers that interact in an equal load sharing scheme, complemented with a local viscoelastic relaxation mechanism. The model correctly describes the three stages of the creep process; namely, an initial Andrade regime of creep relaxation, an intermediate regime of rather constant creep rate, and a tertiary regime of accelerated creep toward final failure of the sample.

Realistic spatial and temporal earthquake distributions in a modified Olami-Feder-Christensen model.

The Olami-Feder-Christensen model describes a limiting case of an elastic surface that slides on top of a substrate and is one of the simplest models that display some features observed in actual seismicity patterns. However, temporal and spatial correlations of real earthquakes are not correctly described by this model in its original form. I propose and study a modified version of the model, which includes a mechanism of structural relaxation.

Finite width of quasistatic shear bands.

I study the average deformation rate of an amorphous material submitted to an external uniform shear strain rate, in the geometry known as the split-bottom configuration. The material is described using a stochastic model of plasticity at a mesoscopic scale. A shear band is observed to start at the split point at the bottom, and widen progressively towards the surface.