MODEL FOR THE ELASTICITY OF COMPRESSED EMULSIONS

We present a new model to describe the unusual elastic properties of c ompressed emulsions. The response of a single droplet under compressio n is investigated numerically for different Wigner-Seitz cells. The re sponse is softer than harmonic, and depends on the coordination number of the droplet. Using these results, we propose a new effective inter droplet potential which is used to determine the elastic response of a monodisperse collection of disordered droplets as a function of volum e fraction. Our results are in excellent agreement with recent experim ents. This suggests that anharmonicity together with disorder are resp onsible for the quasilinear increase of G and Pi observed at phi(c).