2015/01/28 by J. S. Langer, Langer, J. S. · 1 citation
Chemical Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Material Dynamics and Properties #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Rheology and Fluid Dynamics Studies #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Theoretical and Computational Physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1501.07228
openalex publication_date 2015/01/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Yielding transitions in athermal amorphous materials resemble critical phenomena. Historically, they have been described by the Herschel-Bulkley rheological formula, which implies singular behaviors at yield points. In this paper, I examine this class of phenomena using an elementary version of the thermodynamic shear-transformation-zone (STZ) theory, focusing on the role of the effective disorder temperature, and paying special attention to scaling and dimensional arguments. I find a wide variety of Herschel-Bulkley-like rheologies but, for fundamental reasons not specific to the STZ theory, conclude that the yielding transition is not truly critical. In particular, there is a correlation length that grows rapidly, but ultimately saturates near the yield point.