Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica, Università di Napoli Federico II, UdR INSTM, P.le Tecchio, 80, 80125, Napoli, Italy.
Langmuir. 2012 Nov 27;28(47):16254-62. doi: 10.1021/la303232w. Epub 2012 Nov 13.
Pattern formation under the action of flow is a subject of considerable scientific interest with applications going from microfluidics to granular materials. Here, we present a systematic investigation of shear-induced banding in confined biphasic liquid-liquid systems, i.e., formation of alternating regions of high and low volume fraction of droplets in a continuous phase (shear bands). This phenomenon is investigated in immiscible polymer blends sheared in a sliding parallel plate flow cell. Starting from a spatially uniform distribution of droplets, the formation of bands aligned along the flow direction is observed, eventually leading to an almost complete separation between droplet-rich and continuous phase regions. The initial band size is related to the gap dimension; the merging of bands and consequent spacing reduction has also been observed for long times. Shear banding is only observed when the viscosity of the dispersed phase is lower as compared to the continuous phase and in a limited range of the applied shear rate. Rheological measurements show that band formation is associated with a viscosity decrease with respect to the homogeneous case, thus implying that system microstructure is somehow evolving toward reduced viscous dissipation under flow.
流动作用下的图案形成是一个具有相当科学兴趣的主题,其应用范围从微流学到颗粒材料。在这里,我们系统地研究了受限双相液-液体系中的剪切诱导带状现象,即在连续相中形成高和低液滴体积分数的交替区域(剪切带)。这种现象是在滑动平行板流腔中剪切的不混溶聚合物共混物中研究的。从液滴的空间均匀分布开始,观察到沿流动方向排列的带的形成,最终导致液滴富区和连续相区之间几乎完全分离。初始带的尺寸与间隙尺寸有关;还观察到长时间后带的合并和随后的间距减小。只有当分散相的粘度低于连续相并且在应用的剪切速率的有限范围内时,才会观察到剪切带形成。流变测量表明,与均匀情况相比,带的形成与粘度降低有关,因此意味着系统的微观结构在某种程度上正在朝着流动下的粘性耗散减少的方向发展。