Modeling the sol-gel transition

Of particular interest is the sol-gel transition, in which a viscous fluid (the sol) transforms into an elastic disordered solid (the gel) by creating in the liquid phase a macroscopic structure capable of bearing stresses. This article first presents the theoretical approaches to the gelation transition, reviews scaling predictions and numerical models that people use to simulate this transition, and finally presents in some detail the numerical results obtained with the BF model. Comparing various numerical studies gives interesting insights into the transition´s viscoelastic and dynamic properties.