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Updated: Jul 10, 2025

Combining Microfluidics and Microrheology to Determine Rheological Properties of Soft Matter during Repeated Phase Transitions
Published on: April 19, 2018
Effect of Shear History on Solid-Liquid Transition of Particulate Gel Fuels
Jian Li1, Yaning Li1, Wei Xiao2
1School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.
Abstract:
Investigating the structural evolution of particulate gels is a very challenging task due to their vulnerability and true flow characteristics. In this work, deeper insight into the rheological properties of gel fuels filled with fumed silica (FS) and aluminum microparticles (Al MPs) was gained by changing shear procedures. Firstly, the flow curves were found to no longer follow the monotonic power law and exhibited subtle thixotropic responses. As the shear rate increased, the gel structure underwent a transition from local shear to bulk shear in the nonlinear region after yielding. This finding reveals the prevalence of nonideal local shear in industry. Secondly, the time-dependent rheological responses demonstrated that the strength spectrum of gel fuels depends on the applied shear rate, with stress relaxation more easily observed at lower shear rates. Those results involved the structural disruption, recovery, and equilibrium of particulate gels from two scales of shear rate and shear time.
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