Strain-rate frequency superposition: a rheological probe of structural relaxation in soft materials

The rheological properties of soft materials often exhibit surprisingly universal linear and nonlinear features. Here we show that these properties can be unified by considering the effect of the strain-rate amplitude on the structural relaxation of the material. We present a new form of oscillatory rheology, strain-rate frequency superposition (SRFS), where the strain-rate amplitude is fixed as the frequency is varied. We show that SRFS can isolate the response due to structural relaxation, even when it occurs at frequencies too low to be accessible with standard techniques.