Colloidal glasses under shear
Condensed Matter lunchtime seminar
Colloidal glasses under shear
- Event time: 1:00pm
- Event date: 1st August 2005
- Speaker: Nhan Pham (Formerly School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
- Location: Room 2511, James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) James Clerk Maxwell Building Peter Guthrie Tait Road Edinburgh EH9 3FD GB
Event details
It has been shown that colloidal suspensions of hard spheres with
short-range attraction show two different glassy states: the hard-sphere
like glass and attractive glass where the mechanisms for structural arrest
are different [1].
Under shear the hard sphere glass first distorts elastically, then yields
and flows on increasing the applied strain. This behaviour can be
associated with distortion, then breaking, of the neighbour cages which
localise each particle in the suspension [2]. This talk will emphasise
recent studies of the rheology of the attractive glass. In contrast to
repulsive glasses, we find that attractive glasses exhibit a two-stage
yielding process as the applied strain is increased. A tentative
explanation for these observations will be given in terms of the
microstructure of the suspension.
[1] K.N. Pham et al., Science 296 (2002); Phys. Rev. E 69 (2004)
[2] G. Petekidis et al., Phys. Rev. E 66 (2002); Faraday Discussions 123 (2003); J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 16 (2004)
[1] K.N. Pham et al., Science 296 (2002); Phys. Rev. E 69 (2004)
[2] G. Petekidis et al., Phys. Rev. E 66 (2002); Faraday Discussions 123 (2003); J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 16 (2004)
About Condensed Matter lunchtime seminars
This is a weekly series of informal talks given primarily by members of the institute of condensed matter and complex systems, but is also open to members of other groups and external visitors. The aim of the series is to promote discussion and learning of various topics at a level suitable to the broad background of the group. Everyone is welcome to attend..