Shear Hardening in the Rheology of Structured Systems

Abstract

A structural rheological model is presented that describes the phenomenon of shear solidification in structured systems, namely, in concentrated suspensions, micellar solutions, and solutions of associated polymers. The reason for shear hardening (SH) is the appearance of a structure under the action of shear as a result of an increase in the cohesion force between particles or macromolecules. The integral characteristic of the structure is the total number of particles in the aggregates. The kinetic equation describing the process of formation-destruction of aggregates contains four rate constants and leads to a rheological equation with two coefficients.