Many solids around us are disordered : glassy or semi crystalline polymers, oxide or metallic glasses, nanocomposites, are common examples. In disordered systems, the link between macroscopic mechanical properties and the nanostructure of the materials is far from being understood. I will describe some of the efforts that are currently made in improving our understanding of this connection using computer simulations of microscopic or mesoscopic models of materials that range from simple metallic glasses to more complex polymer nanostructures. In particular, I will emphasize the heterogeneous nature of elastic response in these materials, and how it eventually gives rise to complex collective aspects in the plastic deformation, such as structure formation or strain localisation.

References:

•  Modeling deformation and flow of disordered materials; Barrat, Jean-Louis ; de Pablo, Juan J. MRS BULLETIN Volume 32, 941 (2007)
• Nanoscale buckling deformation in layered copolymer materials; Makke, Ali; Perez, Michel ; Lame, Olivier ; Barrat, Jean-Louis PNAS 109, 680-685 (2012)
• Spatial Cooperativity in Microchannel Flows of Soft Jammed Materials: A Mesoscopic Approach; Nicolas, Alexandre; Barrat, Jean-Louis Phys. Rev. Lett., 110 138304 (2013)