Kyle G. Rowe

Writing in the granular gel medium

The reversible fluid-solid transition in granular gels enables the three-dimensional writing of soft, delicate, macroscopic structures with microscopic detail. Gels made from soft microscale particles smoothly transition between the fluid and solid states, making them an ideal medium in which to create macroscopic structures with microscopic precision. While tracing out spatial paths with an injection tip, the granular gel fluidizes at the point of injection and then rapidly solidifies, trapping injected material in place. This physical approach to creating three-dimensional (3D) structures negates the effects of surface tension, gravity, and particle diffusion, allowing a limitless breadth of materials to be written. With this method, we used silicones, hydrogels, colloids, and living cells to create complex large aspect ratio 3D objects, thin closed shells, and hierarchically branched tubular networks. We crosslinked polymeric materials and removed them from the granular gel, whereas uncrosslinked particulate systems were left supported within the medium for long times. This approach can be immediately used in diverse areas, contributing to tissue engineering, flexible electronics, particle engineering, smart materials, and encapsulation technologies.

Erratum to: Wear Debris Mobility, Aligned Surface Roughness, and the Low Wear Behavior of Filled Polytetrafluoroethylene

PTFE/α-alumina composites are well known to exhibit very low wear rates compared to unfilled PTFE and various other PTFE-matrix composites. The improved wear life of these composites is attributed in part to the formation of a uniform protective transfer film on the metal countersurface. It is postulated that the retention of transferred material and the recirculation of third bodies between the transfer film and running surface of the polymer composite are necessary for the maintenance of low wear within this tribological system. The accumulation of these third bodies was observed in reciprocating sliding tests on countersamples prescribed with aligned roughness. Wear performance of the polymer composite was tested as a function of the between the sliding direction and the aligned roughness of the countersample, ranging from parallel to perpendicular to the sliding direction. The wear rate of roughness oriented with the sliding direction was 300 times higher than roughness perpendicular to the sliding direction, revealing the importance of surface morphology and third body retention.

Real Area of Contact in a Soft Transparent Interface by Particle Exclusion Microscopy

Soft matter mechanics are characterized by high strains and time-dependent elastic properties, which complicate contact mechanics for emerging applications in biomedical surfaces and flexible electronics. In addition, hydrated soft matter precludes using interferometry to observe real areas of contact. In this work, we present a method for measuring the real area of contact in a soft, hydrated, and transparent interface by excluding colloidal particles from the contact region. We confirm the technique by presenting a Hertz-like quasi-static indentation (loading time > 1.4 hrs) by a polyacrylamide probe into a stiff flat surface in a submerged environment. The real contact area and width were calculated from in situ images of the interface processed to reduce image noise and thresholded to define the perimeter of contact. This simple technique of in situ particle exclusion microscopy (PEM) may be widely applicable for determining real areas of contact of soft, transparent interfaces.

Janus Blocks: A Binary System Wear Instability

In this manuscript, a simple binary model is devised that describes the wear behavior of two blocks coupled under a constant, dynamically partitioned normal load. In this simple system, the frictional force is reacted by two independent springs and the blocks are allowed to move and wear independently based on system dynamics and kinematics. The only coupling between the blocks occurs through the partitioning of the applied normal load, which uses a pair of springs in parallel to model elasticity. This system is found to preferentially wear one of the blocks until two disparately unique conditions of steady wear are reached in the system: (1) a condition in which the partitioning of the load between the blocks yields equal wear and thus steady partitioning of the load and (2) a condition in which the pair of blocks go to zero wear by having one block not sliding but carrying all of the load and the other block completely slipping but carrying none of the load. These “Janus blocks,” the simplest of binary spring–block systems, begin life in a nominally identical state and then their behavior bifurcates, producing runaway or irregular wear. The onset of this instability can initiate from any differences in load partitioning, spring constants, friction coefficient, or wear rates (no matter how small).

Lessons from the Lollipop: Biotribology, Tribocorrosion, and Irregular Surfaces

Abstract Biotribology and tribocorrosion are often not included in numerical or computational modeling efforts to predict wear because of the apparent complexity in the geometry, the variability in removal rates, and the challenge associated with mixing time-dependent removal processes such as corrosion with cyclic material removal from wear. The lollipop is an accessible bio-tribocorrosion problem that is well known but underexplored scientifically as a tribocorrosion process. Stress-assisted dissolution was found to be the dominant tribocorrosion process driving material removal in this system. A model of material removal was described and approached by lumping the intrinsically time-dependent process with a mechanically driven process into a single cyclic volumetric material removal rate. This required the collection of self-reported wear data from 58 participants that were used in conjunction with statistical analysis of actual lollipop cross-sectional information. Thousands of repeated numerical simulations of material removal and shape evolution were conducted using a simple Monte Carlo process that varied the input parameters and geometries to match the measured variability. The resulting computations were analyzed to calculate both the average number of licks required to reach the Tootsie Roll® center of a Tootsie Roll® pop, as well as the expected variation thereof.