Universality class of the reversible-irreversible transition in sheared suspensions

Menon, Gautam I and Ramaswamy, Sriram (2009) Universality class of the reversible-irreversible transition in sheared suspensions. In: Physical Review E, 79 (6, Par). 061108-1.

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Abstract

Collections of non-Brownian particles suspended in a viscous fluid and subjected to oscillatory shear at very low Reynolds number have recently been shown to exhibit a remarkable dynamical phase transition separating reversible from irreversible behavior as the strain amplitude or volume fraction are increased. We present a simple model for this phenomenon, based on which we argue that this transition lies in the universality class of the conserved directed percolation models. This leads to predictions for the scaling behavior of a large number of experimental observables. Non-Brownian suspensions under oscillatory shear may thus constitute the first experimental realization of an inactive-active phase transition which is not in the universality class of conventional directed percolation.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Physical Review E
Publisher:	American physical society
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to the American Physical Society.
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	31 Dec 2009 09:58
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 05:38
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/21636

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