802 Identifying Mesoscale Structures in Particulate-based Systems
Lou Kondic, NJIT
Konstantin Mischaikow, Rutgers University
Dense systems build out of discrete elements, such as bacteria, colloids, grains of sand, animal herds, or pedestrians are everywhere around us. During last decade or so, a significant progress has been reached in connecting the properties of the basic building blocks and their interactions to the macroscale properties of the systems considered. Developing such connections requires better understanding of the mesoscale, large compared to the scale of the elements, but small compared to the system size. It is by now well known that at least in some of the considered particulate systems, the mesoscale description needs to include interaction networks, that develop spontaneously in a number of soft matter systems, such as those listed above, or more specifically including dry and wet granular materials, suspensions, colloids, foams, and a variety of active matter systems. These networks are essential in determining material response in natural systems, involving processes such as avalanches, debris flows, and earthquakes, or technologically relevant ones - ranging from transport of rocks and solids to processing of powders and pills. Interaction networks appear in all of these systems and are connected on one side to the discrete nature of the underlying system (particles in a granular system, bubbles in a foam, or bacteria in an active matter system) and on the other side to macro scale properties of the system. Classical macroscopic measures including stress and fabric, contain system-scale information on forces and structure. The response of such systems depends crucially on the link between grain-scale and system-scale properties.
The proposed minisymposium will focus on the novel computational methods that have been developed during the last few years for the purpose of identifying mesoscale structures in particulate-based systems. These methods emerge from a variety of disciplines: computational topology, and in particular persistent homology that has been recently widely used for analysis of variety of systems,
networks theory, percolation, to name just a few main directions. The novel computational methods that have been developed are more general than the systems to which they were applied, and may be of interest to the researchers in other disciplines as well. We envision that the proposed minisymposium will allow for `spreading the word' and making the researchers working on some of the systems listed above aware of the results and approaches developed for the other ones. Therefore, new communication channels will be established between the researchers, leading to further progress in this exciting field of research.
The proposed minisymposium will focus on the novel computational methods that have been developed during the last few years for the purpose of identifying mesoscale structures in particulate-based systems. These methods emerge from a variety of disciplines: computational topology, and in particular persistent homology that has been recently widely used for analysis of variety of systems,
networks theory, percolation, to name just a few main directions. The novel computational methods that have been developed are more general than the systems to which they were applied, and may be of interest to the researchers in other disciplines as well. We envision that the proposed minisymposium will allow for `spreading the word' and making the researchers working on some of the systems listed above aware of the results and approaches developed for the other ones. Therefore, new communication channels will be established between the researchers, leading to further progress in this exciting field of research.
