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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Measuring Material Microstructure Under Flow Using 1-2 Plane Flow-Small Angle Neutron Scattering
Published on: February 6, 2014
Nonlocal effects in flows of wormlike micellar solutions
Chloé Masselon1, Jean-Baptiste Salmon, Annie Colin
1LOF, unité mixte CNRS-Rhodia-Bordeaux 1, 178 avenue du Docteur Schweitzer, Pessac Cedex, France. chloe.masselon-exterieur@eu.rhodia.com
Abstract:
The flow curve of wormlike micelles usually exhibits a stress plateau sigma* separating high and low viscosity branches, leading to shear-banded flows. We study the flow of semidilute wormlike micellar systems in a confined geometry: a straight microchannel. We characterize their local rheology thanks to particle image velocimetry. We show that flow curves cannot be described by a simple constitutive equation linking the local shear stress to the local shear rate. We demonstrate the existence of nonlocal effects in the flow of wormlike micellar systems and make use of a theoretical framework allowing the measurement of correlation lengths.
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