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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Combining Microfluidics and Microrheology to Determine Rheological Properties of Soft Matter during Repeated Phase Transitions
Published on: April 19, 2018
Microfluidic rheology of soft colloids above and below jamming
K N Nordstrom1, E Verneuil, P E Arratia
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104, USA.
Abstract:
The rheology near jamming of a suspension of soft colloidal spheres is studied using a custom microfluidic rheometer that provides the stress versus strain rate over many decades. We find non-Newtonian behavior below the jamming concentration and yield-stress behavior above it. The data may be collapsed onto two branches with critical scaling exponents that agree with expectations based on Hertzian contacts and viscous drag. These results support the conclusion that jamming is similar to a critical phase transition, but with interaction-dependent exponents.
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