343 research outputs found
Yielding of Hard-Sphere Glasses during Start-Up Shear
Concentrated hard-sphere suspensions and glasses are investigated with rheometry, confocal microscopy, and Brownian dynamics simulations during start-up shear, providing a link between microstructure, dynamics, and rheology. The microstructural anisotropy is manifested in the extension axis where the maximum of the pair-distribution function exhibits a minimum at the stress overshoot. The interplay between Brownian relaxation and shear advection as well as the available free volume determine the structural anisotropy and the magnitude of the stress overshoot. Shear-induced cage deformation induces local constriction, reducing in-cage diffusion. Finally, a superdiffusive response at the steady state, with a minimum of the time-dependent effective diffusivity, reflects a continuous cage breakup and reformation
Kinetic pathways of multi-phase surfactant systems
The relaxation following a temperature quench of two-phase (lamellar and
sponge phase) and three-phase (lamellar, sponge and micellar phase) samples,
has been studied in an SDS/octanol/brine system. In the three-phase case we
have observed samples that are initially mainly sponge phase with lamellar and
micellar phase on the top and bottom respectively. Upon decreasing temperature
most of the volume of the sponge phase is replaced by lamellar phase. During
the equilibriation we have observed three regimes of behaviour within the
sponge phase: (i) disruption in the sponge texture, then (ii) after the sponge
phase homogenises there is a lamellar nucleation regime and finally (iii) a
bizarre plume connects the lamellar phase with the micellar phase. The
relaxation of the two-phase sample proceeds instead in two stages. First
lamellar drops nucleate in the sponge phase forming a onion `gel' structure.
Over time the lamellar structure compacts while equilibriating into a two phase
lamellar/sponge phase sample. We offer possible explanatioins for some of these
observations in the context of a general theory for phase kinetics in systems
with one fast and one slow variable.Comment: 1 textfile, 20 figures (jpg), to appear in PR
From Equilibrium to Steady State: The Transient Dynamics of Colloidal Liquids under Shear
We investigate stresses and particle motion during the start up of flow in a
colloidal dispersion close to arrest into a glassy state. A combination of
molecular dynamics simulation, mode coupling theory and confocal microscopy
experiment is used to investigate the origins of the widely observed stress
overshoot and (previously not reported) super-diffusive motion in the transient
dynamics. A link between the macro-rheological stress versus strain curves and
the microscopic particle motion is established. Negative correlations in the
transient auto-correlation function of the potential stresses are found
responsible for both phenomena, and arise even for homogeneous flows and almost
Gaussian particle displacements.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figures, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter, in pres
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