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Significance The stress-induced transition from solid to liquid state is commonly referred to as “yielding.” Yield-stress materials, including pastes, muds, blood, crude oil, and condiments like mayonnaise, have solid-like properties at rest but can be made to yield and flow under sufficient applied stress. Despite their ubiquity and importance, the existing 100-y-old theory describing the behavior of such materials is only well verified under basic conditions of applied shear stress and assumes that the solid state is undeformable. Experiments and simulations conducted under pure extension provide fundamental information on the behavior of yield-stress materials and demand an overhaul of the current standard theory in order to account for material deformation in the solid-like state prior to yielding and flow., We report experimental microfluidic measurements and theoretical modeling of elastoviscoplastic materials under steady, planar elongation. Employing a theory that allows the solid state to deform, we predict the yielding and flow dynamics of such complex materials in pure extensional flows. We find a significant deviation of the ratio of the elongational to the shear yield stress from the standard value predicted by ideal viscoplastic theory, which is attributed to the normal stresses that develop in the solid state prior to yielding. Our results show that the yield strain of the material governs the transition dynamics from the solid state to the liquid state. Finally, given the difficulties of quantifying the stress field in such materials under elongational flow conditions, we identify a simple scaling law that enables the determination of the elongational yield stress from experimentally measured velocity fields.

In this paper, hysteresis of magnetorheological (MR) fluids is identified from experimental tests following the mechanism of rate-independence and further studied to explore the hysteresis mechanism. The theoretical analysis based on the dipole model is provided to reveal the hysteresis mechanism of MR fluids. Specifically, the performance tests of a self-developed double-rod MR damper under different excitations show that instead of the typical force-velocity plot, the relationship between the force and displacement meets the requirements of rate-independence of the hysteresis well. A critical concept of “yield displacement” is defined and analyzed in the force-displacement plot to illustrate the hysteresis characteristics. In addition, the relationship of the normalized restoring force vs. strain is derived for a single chain from the dipole model. Then a stress-strain curve is developed for the multi-chain structure with an assumption of the dynamic equilibrium between the rupture and reconstruction of the chains. Sequentially, the hysteresis mechanism is established based on the force-displacement characteristics under reciprocating excitations. The consistency between the yield displacement in experiment and yield strain in theory verifies the effectiveness of the hypothetical hysteresis mechanism. The analysis results provide a guideline for the structural design of MR devices to enhance/reduce the hysteresis effect. The hysteresis mechanism-based further extension for the stress-strain properties of MR elastomers and the response time of MR fluids are provided as well.

The depletion attraction, induced upon addition of a nonadsorbing polymer to a colloidal solution, can lead to gel formation at sufficiently high polymer concentrations, which corresponds to strong attractive interactions. We have investigated the nonlinear rheological response, in particular the yielding, of colloidal gels with an intermediate volume fraction and variable interparticle attraction. Two distinct yielding processes are observed in both oscillatory experiments, namely, dynamic strain sweeps and transient experiments, here step rate, creep, and recovery tests. The first yielding process occurs at strains similar to the range of the interparticle potential and is interpreted as the breaking of bonds, which destroys the particle network and leads to individual clusters. The process of bond breaking is successfully modeled as the escape of a particle from the potential well of its nearest neighbor. The second yield point occurs at larger strains and is related to the deformation and fragmentatio...

cited By 8; International audience; Physical ageing of amorphous polymers well below their glass transition temperature leads to changes in almost all physical properties. Of particular interest is the increase in yield stress and post-yield strain softening that accompanies ageing of these materials. Moreover, at larger strain polymers seem to rejuvenate, i.e. aged and non-aged samples have identical stressstrain responses. Also, plastically deforming an aged sample seems to rejuvenate the polymer. In this work we use molecular dynamic simulations with a detailed force field suitable for macromolecular ensembles to simulate and understand the effects of ageing on the mechanical response of these materials. We show that within the timescales of these simulations it is possible to simulate both ageing and rejuvenation. The short range potentials play an important role in ageing and rejuvenation. A typical yield drop exhibited by glassy polymers is a manifestation of a sudden relaxation in the short range structure of an aged polymer. Moreover, the aged polymers are known to be brittle. We show that this is intimately related to its typical stressstrain response which allows it to carry arbitrarily large mean stresses ahead of a notch. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.