Yielding of hard-sphere glasses during start-up shear.

Complex oscillatory yielding of model hard-sphere glasses.

The yielding behavior of hard sphere glasses under large-amplitude oscillatory shear has been studied by probing the interplay of Brownian motion and shear-induced diffusion at varying oscillation frequencies. Stress, structure and dynamics are followed by experimental rheology and Browian dynamics simulations. Brownian-motion-assisted cage escape dominates at low frequencies while escape throu...

Rearrangements in hard-sphere glasses under oscillatory shear strain.

We investigate particle rearrangements in colloidal glasses subjected to oscillatory shear strain by the technique of light scattering (LS) echo. LS echo directly follows the motion of the particles through peaks (echoes) in the intensity autocorrelation function; the height of the peak measures the reversible motion in the sample. Polydisperse hard-sphere poly-methylmethacrylate particles were...

Transient stress evolution in repulsion and attraction dominated glasses

We present results from microscopic mode coupling theory generalized to colloidal dispersions under shear in an integration through transients formalism. Stress strain curves in start up shear, flow curves, and normal stresses are calculated with the equilibrium static structure factor as only input. Hard spheres close to their glass transition are considered, as are hard spheres with a short r...

Supplementary Material for Complex oscillatory yielding of model hard sphere glasses

Colloidal gels under shear: Strain rate effects

Attractive colloidal particles are trapped in metastable states such as colloidal gels at high attraction strengths and attractive glasses and high volume fractions. Under shear such states flow via a two step yielding process that relates to bond and cluster or cage breaking. We discuss the way the structural properties and related stress response are affected by the shear rate. At low rates c...