Issue 39, 2022

Yield precursor in primary creep of colloidal gels

Abstract

Colloidal gels under constant moderate stress flow only after a prolonged solid-like deformation. Predicting the time-dependent yielding of the gels would facilitate control of their mechanical stability and transport, but early detectable signs of such delayed solid-to-fluid transition remain unknown. We show that the shear rate of colloidal gels under constant stress can forecast an eventual yielding during the earliest stage of deformation known as primary creep. The shear rate before failure exhibits a characteristic power-law decrease as a function of time, distinct from the linear viscoelastic response. We model this early-stage behavior as a series of uncorrelated local plastic events that are thermally activated, which illuminates the exponential dependence of the yield time on the applied stress. By revealing underlying viscoplasticity, this precursor to yield in the macroscopic shear rate provides a convenient tool to predict the yielding of a gel well in advance of its actual occurrence.

Graphical abstract: Yield precursor in primary creep of colloidal gels

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
30 6月 2022
Accepted
21 9月 2022
First published
22 9月 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2022,18, 7612-7620

Yield precursor in primary creep of colloidal gels

J. H. Cho and I. Bischofberger, Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 7612 DOI: 10.1039/D2SM00884J

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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