The flow behavior of a viscoelastic organogel is investigated using ultrasonic velocimetry combined with rheometry. Our gel presents a decreasing flow curve, i.e., the measured stress decreases as a function of the applied shear rate. Strikingly, we note that the local flow curve calculated from the velocity profiles also exhibits a decreasing part. We attribute this regime to the presence of a fracturing process and three-dimensional motions in the bulk of the sample.
@article{arxiv.0903.5395,
title = {Shear-induced fractures and three-dimensional motions in an organogel},
author = {P. Grondin and S. Manneville and J. -L. Pozzo and A. Colin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0903.5395},
year = {2009}
}