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Rheology of yield stress fluids: a multiscale approach

Project description

Modelling when and how yield stress fluids go with the flow

Colloids, microgels, emulsions, foams, pastes and slurries all have something in common – they belong to an interesting class of materials known as yield stress fluids. These fluids flow only when they are subjected to a load above some critical value. Otherwise, they assume a solid-like state. These complicated flow characteristics are difficult to predict not only because of the nature of the materials themselves, but also because they depend on what the materials are flowing in or around. Despite their widespread applications, including in foods, pharmaceuticals, construction, oil extraction, lubricants, coatings, etc., we are still far from understanding and predicting their behaviours and rationally designing them for specific uses. The EU-funded RheoYield project is using theoretical and computational tools in a multiscale approach to better understand how the macroscopic behaviours of yield stress fluids emerge from the microscopic constituents.

Objective

Yield stress fluids defy our conventional notions of liquid and solid, keeping their shape as soft solids at low loads, yet yielding and flowing like liquids at larger loads. They can then suffer arbitrarily large deformations in this liquid state, but will recover a solid state if the load is removed. Their internal microstructure and macroscopic shape are thus determined directly by the processing history they experience. Such materials are all around us: in colloids, microgels, emulsions, foams, pastes, slurries, and their biological counterparts. They find widespread applications in foods, pharmaceuticals, construction, oil extraction, lubricants, coatings, etc. Despite this importance to so many engineering processes, we still do not understand how their remarkable macroscopic rheological (deformation and flow) properties emerge out of the collective dynamics of their constituent microscopic substructures: colloid particles, microgel beads, emulsion droplets, etc. Addressing key questions emerging from recent experiments, RheoYield aims to build new theories to inform and potentially transform our understanding of the rheology of yield stress fluids. Within a multiscale approach, the project will capitalise on rapid recent progress in understanding how microscopic rearrangement events cooperate to give macroscopic flow. Using theoretical and computational tools that I have recently developed, and new ones that will be developed here, RheoYield aims to: 1. Identify the microscopic changes that take place in a soft solid as it slowly yields into a fluidised state. 2. Understand the profound influence of boundary physics on bulk yielding. 3. Develop the first microscopically founded continuum constitutive model that captures all the key features of yield stress rheology. 4. Establish a microscopically founded computational fluid dynamics of yield stress fluids. 5. Develop basic new science underpinning strategies for the optimised control of yield stress rheology.

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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ERC-ADG - Advanced Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2019-ADG

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Host institution

UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 2 374 753,75
Address
STOCKTON ROAD THE PALATINE CENTRE
DH1 3LE DURHAM
United Kingdom

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Region
North East (England) Tees Valley and Durham Durham CC
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 374 753,75

Beneficiaries (1)

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