Shear zones and wall slip in the capillary flow of concentrated colloidal suspensions

Lucio Isa, Rut Besseling, Wilson C. K. Poon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

We image the flow of a nearly random close packed, hard-sphere colloidal suspension (a "paste") in a square capillary using confocal microscopy. The flow consists of a "plug" in the center while shear occurs localized adjacent to the channel walls, reminiscent of yield-stress fluid behavior. However, the observed scaling of the velocity profiles with the flow rate strongly contrasts yield-stress fluid predictions. Instead, the velocity profiles can be captured by a theory of stress fluctuations originally developed for chute flow of dry granular media. We verified this both for smooth and rough walls.

Original languageEnglish
Article number198305
Pages (from-to)-
Number of pages4
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume98
Issue number19
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 May 2007

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • CHUTE FLOWS
  • SIMULATIONS
  • GLASSES

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