Work

Nonlinear viscoelasticity of metastable complex fluids

Year: 2006

Type: article

Abstract: Many metastable complex fluids such as colloidal glasses and gels show distinct nonlinear viscoelasticity with increasing oscillatory-strain amplitude; the storage modulus decreases monotonically as the strain amplitude increases whereas the loss modulus has a distinct peak before it decreases at larger strains. We present a qualitative argument to explain this ubiquitous behavior and use mode-coupling theory (MCT) to confirm it. We compare theoretical predictions to the measured nonlinear viscoelasticity in a dense hard-sphere colloidal suspension; reasonable agreement is obtained. The argument given here can be used to obtain new information about linear viscoelasticity of metastable complex fluids from nonlinear strain measurements.

Source: Europhysics Letters (EPL)

DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2006-10203-9

Authors: K Miyazaki, H. M Wyss, D. A Weitz, D. R Reichman

Institutions: Columbia University, Harvard University

Language: English

Topic: Material Dynamics and Properties

Subfield: Materials Chemistry

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Science Foundation, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, Harvard University, Division of Materials Research

Awards: CAREER: Studies of Collective Motion In Complex Liquids: Heterogeneity, Disorder and Spectroscopy, Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, G7679134096, Non-Equilibrium and Non-Linear Structure and Dynamics of Soft Materials