Avalanche behavior in yield stress fluids

We show that, above a critical stress, typical yield stress fluids (gels and clay suspensions) and soft glassy materials (colloidal glasses) start flowing abruptly and subsequently accelerate, leading to avalanches that are remarkably similar to those of granular materials. Rheometrical tests reveal that this is associated with a bifurcation in rheological behavior: for small stresses, the viscosity increases in time; the material eventually stops flowing. For slightly larger stresses the viscosity decreases continuously in time; the flow accelerates. Thus the viscosity jumps discontinuously to infinity at the critical stress. We propose a simple physical model capable of reproducing these effects.