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The rheological behavior of colloidal dispersions is of paramount importance in a wide range of applications, including construction materials, energy storage systems and food industry products. These dispersions consistently exhibit non-Newtonian behaviors, a consequence of intricate interplays involving colloids morphology, volume fraction, and inter-particle forces. Understanding how colloids structure under flow remains a challenge, particularly in the presence of attractive forces leading to clusters formation. In this study, we adopt a synergistic approach, combining rheology with ultra small-angle X-ray scattering (USAXS), to probe the flow-induced structural transformations of attractive carbon black (CB) dispersions and their effects on the viscosity. Our key findings can be summarized as follow. First, testing different CB volume fractions, in the high shear rate hydrodynamic regime, CB particles aggregate to form fractal clusters. Their size conforms to a power law of the shear rate, $\xi_c \propto \dot{\gamma}^{-m}$, with $m\simeq 0.5$. Second, drawing insights from the fractal structure of clusters, we compute an effective volume fraction $\phi_{\mathrm{eff}}$ and find that microstructural models adeptly account for the hydrodynamic stress contributions. We identify a critical shear rate $\dot{\gamma^*}$ and a critical volume fraction $\phi_{\mathrm{eff}}^{*}$, at which the clusters percolate to form a dynamical network.

Typically, in quiescent conditions, attractive colloids at low volume fractions form fractal gels structured into two length scales: the colloidal and the fractal cluster scales. However when flow interfere with gelation colloidal fractal gels may display three distinct length scales [Dag\`es, et al., Soft Matter 18, 6645 (2022)]. Following those recent experimental investigations, we derive two models that account for the structure and the rheological properties of such atypical colloidal gels. The gel elasticity is inferred from scaling arguments and the structure is translated into scattering intensities following the global scattering functions approach proposed by Beaucage and typically measured in small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). In both models, we consider that the colloids condensate into fractal clusters. In the clusters of clusters model, the clusters form superagregates which then build the gel network. In the interpenetrating clusters model, the clusters interpenetrate one-another to form the gel network. Those two models are then utilised to analyse rheo-SAXS experiments carried out on carbon black gels formed through flow cessation. The results of the analysis vouch for the clusters of clusters model with a densification of the structures as the gel characteristic length scales increase.

Aggregation and disaggregation of clusters of attractive particles under flow are studied from numerical and theoretical points of view. Two-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations of both Couette and Poiseuille flows highlight the growth of the average steady-state cluster size as a power law of the adhesion number, a dimensionless number that quantifies the ratio of attractive forces to shear stress. Such a power-law scaling results from the competition between aggregation and disaggregation processes, as already reported in the literature. Here, we rationalize this behavior through a model based on an energy function, which minimization yields the power-law exponent in terms of the cluster fractal dimension, in good agreement with the present simulations and with previous works., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures

Colloidal suspensions and the relation between their rheology and their microstructure is investigated. The literature showed great evidence of the relation between rheological quantities and particle volume fraction, ignoring the influence of the cluster. We propose to extend previous models using a new double fractal structure which allows, first, to recover the well-known models on the case of percolated system and, second, to capture the influence of the cluster size. This new model emphasises the necessity of such structure to account for recent experimental results. Then, the model is compared with data coming from the literature and shows close agreement., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, letter

Cold spray technology is a quickly growing manufacturing technology which impacts lots of industries. Despite many years of studies about the comprehension of the phenomena and the improvements of the performance of the system, ensuring high fidelity simulations remains a challenge. We propose in this work a detailed high fidelity modeling and simulations giving more insight of the phenomena appearing in cold spray such as turbulence, oblique shocks, bow shocks, fluctuations, particles motion and particles impacts. It is mainly based on a richer model known as the Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) model. Moreover, we present several analysis of various existing models for both validations and comparisons purposes. Finally, this high fidelity framework will allow us to deal with a new configuration showing an improved performance assessed with the previous models., Comment: 29 pages, 21 figures, 4 tables, submitted to Journal of Thermal Spray Technology