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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Studying Large Amplitude Oscillatory Shear Response of Soft Materials
Published on: April 25, 2019
Short-time inertial response of viscoelastic fluids: observation of vortex propagation
M Atakhorrami1, G H Koenderink, C F Schmidt
1Division of Physics and Astronomy, Vrije Universiteit, 1081HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. maryam@nat.vu.nl
Abstract:
We probe the response of viscous and viscoelastic fluids on micrometer and microsecond length and time scales using two optically trapped beads. In this way we resolve the flow field, which exhibits clear effects of fluid inertia. Specifically, we resolve the short-time vortex flow and the corresponding evolution of this vortex, which propagates diffusively for simple liquids. For viscoelastic fluids, this propagation is shown to be faster than diffusive and the displacement correlations reflect the frequency-dependent shear modulus of the medium.
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