The role of elastic instability on the self-assembly of particle chains in simple shear flow

Smith, M. G., Gibson, G. M. , Link, A. , Raghavan, A., Clarke, A., Franke, T. and Tassieri, M. (2023) The role of elastic instability on the self-assembly of particle chains in simple shear flow. Physics of Fluids, 35(12), 122017. (doi: 10.1063/5.0182175)

Abstract

Flow-induced self-assembly (FISA) is the phenomena of particle chaining in viscoelastic fluids while experiencing shear flow. FISA has a large number of applications across many fields including materials science, food processing, and biomedical engineering. Nonetheless, this phenomena is currently not fully understood and little has been done in literature so far to investigate the possible effects of the shear-induced elastic instability. In this work, a bespoke cone and plate shear cell is used to provide new insights on the FISA dynamics. In particular, we have fine-tuned the applied shear rates to investigate the chaining phenomenon of micrometer-sized spherical particles suspended into a viscoelastic fluid characterized by a distinct onset of elastic instability. This has allowed us to reveal three phenomena never reported in literature before, i.e.,: (I) the onset of the elastic instability is strongly correlated with an enhancement of FISA; (II) particle chains break apart when a constant shear is applied for “sufficiently” long-time (i.e., much longer than the fluids' longest relaxation time). This latter point correlates well with the outcomes of parallel superposition shear measurements, which (III) reveal a fading of the elastic component of the suspending fluid during continuous shear flows.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the EPSRC CDT in Intelligent Sensing and Measurement, Grant Number EP/L016753/1.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gibson, Dr Graham and Tassieri, Dr Manlio and Franke, Professor Thomas and Link, Mr Andreas and Smith, Mr Matthew

Creator Roles

Smith, M.: Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Software, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing
Gibson, G.: Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing
Link, A.: Data curation, Methodology, Writing – original draft
Franke, T.: Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft
Tassieri, M.: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Smith, M. G., Gibson, G. M., Link, A., Raghavan, A., Clarke, A., Franke, T., and Tassieri, M.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Biomedical Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Journal Name: Physics of Fluids
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics
• ISSN: 1070-6631
• ISSN (Online): 1089-7666
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in Physics of Fluids 35:122017
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a creative commons licence

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
190828		EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Sensing and Measurement	Andrew Harvey	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/L016753/1	P&S - Physics & Astronomy