1,209 research outputs found
A minimal model for chaotic shear banding in shear-thickening fluids
We present a minimal model for spatiotemporal oscillation and rheochaos in
shear-thickening complex fluids at zero Reynolds number. In the model, a
tendency towards inhomogeneous flows in the form of shear bands combines with a
slow structural dynamics, modelled by delayed stress relaxation. Using
Fourier-space numerics, we study the nonequilibrium `phase diagram' of the
fluid as a function of a steady mean (spatially averaged) stress, and of the
relaxation time for structural relaxation. We find several distinct regions of
periodic behavior (oscillating bands, travelling bands, and more complex
oscillations) and also regions of spatiotemporal rheochaos. A low-dimensional
truncation of the model retains the important physical features of the full
model (including rheochaos) despite the suppression of sharply defined
interfaces between shear bands. Our model maps onto the FitzHugh-Nagumo model
for neural network dynamics, with an unusual form of long-range coupling.Comment: Revised version (in particular, new section III.E. and Appendix A
Dilatancy, Jamming, and the Physics of Granulation
Granulation is a process whereby a dense colloidal suspension is converted
into pasty granules (surrounded by air) by application of shear. Central to the
stability of the granules is the capillary force arising from the interfacial
tension between solvent and air. This force appears capable of maintaining a
solvent granule in a jammed solid state, under conditions where the same amount
of solvent and colloid could also exist as a flowable droplet. We argue that in
the early stages of granulation the physics of dilatancy, which requires that a
powder expand on shearing, is converted by capillary forces into the physics of
arrest. Using a schematic model of colloidal arrest under stress, we speculate
upon various jamming and granulation scenarios. Some preliminary experimental
results on aspects of granulation in hard-sphere colloidal suspensions are also
reported.Comment: Original article intended for J Phys Cond Mat special issue on
Granular Materials (M Nicodemi, Ed.
Theory of nonlinear rheology and yielding of dense colloidal suspensions
A first principles approach to the nonlinear flow of dense suspensions is
presented which captures shear thinning of colloidal fluids and dynamical
yielding of colloidal glasses. The advection of density fluctuations plays a
central role, suppressing the caging of particles and speeding up structural
relaxation. A mode coupling approach is developed to explore these effects.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; slightly corrected version; Phys. Rev. Lett., to
be published (2002
Velocity profiles in shear-banding wormlike micelles
Using Dynamic Light Scattering in heterodyne mode, we measure velocity
profiles in a much studied system of wormlike micelles (CPCl/NaSal) known to
exhibit both shear-banding and stress plateau behavior. Our data provide
evidence for the simplest shear-banding scenario, according to which the
effective viscosity drop in the system is due to the nucleation and growth of a
highly sheared band in the gap, whose thickness linearly increases with the
imposed shear rate. We discuss various details of the velocity profiles in all
the regions of the flow curve and emphasize on the complex, non-Newtonian
nature of the flow in the highly sheared band.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
When are active Brownian particles and run-and-tumble particles equivalent? Consequences for motility-induced phase separation
Active Brownian particles (ABPs, such as self-phoretic colloids) swim at
fixed speed along a body-axis that rotates by slow angular
diffusion. Run-and-tumble particles (RTPs, such as motile bacteria) swim with
constant \u until a random tumble event suddenly decorrelates the
orientation. We show that when the motility parameters depend on density
but not on , the coarse-grained fluctuating hydrodynamics of
interacting ABPs and RTPs can be mapped onto each other and are thus strictly
equivalent. In both cases, a steeply enough decreasing causes phase
separation in dimensions , even when no attractive forces act between
the particles. This points to a generic role for motility-induced phase
separation in active matter. However, we show that the ABP/RTP equivalence does
not automatically extend to the more general case of \u-dependent motilities
Scaling of polymers in aligned rods
We study the behavior of self avoiding polymers in a background of vertically
aligned rods that are either frozen into random positions or free to move
horizontally. We find that in both cases the polymer chains are highly
elongated, with vertical and horizontal size exponents that differ by a factor
of 3. Though these results are different than previous predictions, our results
are confirmed by detailed computer simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Glass Rheology: From mode-coupling theory to a dynamical yield criterion
The mode coupling theory (MCT) of glasses, while offering an incomplete
description of glass transition physics, represents the only established route
to first-principles prediction of rheological behavior in nonergodic materials
such as colloidal glasses. However, the constitutive equations derivable from
MCT are somewhat intractable, hindering their practical use and also their
interpretation. Here, we present a schematic (single-mode) MCT model which
incorporates the tensorial structure of the full theory. Using it, we calculate
the dynamic yield surface for a large class of flows
On two intrinsic length scales in polymer physics: topological constraints vs. entanglement length
The interplay of topological constraints, excluded volume interactions,
persistence length and dynamical entanglement length in solutions and melts of
linear chains and ring polymers is investigated by means of kinetic Monte Carlo
simulations of a three dimensional lattice model. In unknotted and
unconcatenated rings, topological constraints manifest themselves in the static
properties above a typical length scale ( being
the volume fraction, the mean bond length).
Although one might expect that the same topological length will play a role
in the dynamics of entangled polymers, we show that this is not the case.
Instead, a different intrinsic length de, which scales like excluded volume
blob size , governs the scaling of the dynamical properties of both linear
chains and rings.Comment: 7 pages. 4 figure
Singular forces and point-like colloids in lattice Boltzmann hydrodynamics
We present a second-order accurate method to include arbitrary distributions
of force densities in the lattice Boltzmann formulation of hydrodynamics. Our
method may be used to represent singular force densities arising either from
momentum-conserving internal forces or from external forces which do not
conserve momentum. We validate our method with several examples involving point
forces and find excellent agreement with analytical results. A minimal model
for dilute sedimenting particles is presented using the method which promises a
substantial gain in computational efficiency.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
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