2010/11/16 by M. I. Smith, R. Besseling, Michael E. Cates +3 · 2 citations
Chemical Engineering · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer #Granular flow and fluidized beds #Rheology and Fluid Dynamics Studies #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/ncomms1119
published as Nature Communications 1:114 (2010) · 22pages, 4 figures
openalex publication_date 2010/11/16 · arxiv created 2011/01/12 · arxiv updated 2011/01/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Concentrated particulate suspensions, commonplace in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries, display intriguing rheology. In particular, the dramatic increase in viscosity with strain rate (shear thickening and jamming) which is often observed at high volume fractions, is of strong practical and fundamental importance. Yet manufacture of these products and their subsequent dispensing often involves flow geometries substantially different from that of simple shear flow experiments. Here we show that the elongation and breakage of a filament of a colloidal fluid under tensile loading is closely related to the jamming transition seen in its shear rheology. However, the modified flow geometry reveals important additional effects. Using a model system with nearly hard-core interactions, we provide evidence of surprisingly strong viscoelasticity in such a colloidal fluid under tension. With high speed photography we also directly observe dilatancy and granulation effects, which lead to fracture above a critical elongation rate.