Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:26:37 BST CiteULike: dchen's Rouzeau http://www.citeulike.org/user/dchen/author/Rouzeau CiteULike.org en-gb Copyright © 2004-2008 citeulike.org http://www.citeulike.org/user/dchen/article/2709675 <i>Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, No. 19. (2006)</i><br /><br />We have studied the effect of shear on the stability of suspensions made of non-Brownian solid particles. We demonstrate the existence of an irreversible transition where the solid particles aggregate at remarkably low volume fractions (0.1). This shear-induced aggregation is dramatic and exhibits a very sudden change in the viscosity, which increases sharply after a shear-dependent induction time. We show that this induction time is related exponentially to the shear rate, reflecting the importance of the hydrodynamic forces in reducing the repulsive energy barrier that prevents the particles from aggregating. Irreversible Shear-Activated Aggregation in Non-Brownian Suspensions J Guery E Bertrand C Rouzeau P Levitz DA Weitz J Bibette doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.198301 Physical Review Letters, Vol. 96, No. 19. (2006) 2008-04-23T18:01:46-00:00 2006 Physical Review Letters 96 19 APS hydrodynamics shear weitz