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Hui-En Teo

Publications and source records attributed to Hui-En Teo.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Yielding and flow in aggregated particulate suspensions

A simple and popular constitutive model used to describe the compressional strength of a consolidating strongly cohesive particulate gel is tested further with new experimental data. Strong cohesive particulate gels have variously been described as being ratchet (poro) elastic, on the one hand, and as having a yield stress in compression, on the other, to the point where same groups of workers have used both descriptions at one time or another. The dichotomy is real though as such gels do show a hitherto somewhat puzzling elastic-plastic duality. This can be explained in part by the strong concentration dependence of the modulus since this leads to irreversible volumetric strain-hardening, in effect, the ratchet; but only in small part. The real problem seems to be that, until very recently, most work on consolidation has neglected what what Michaels and Bolger told us to do over 50 years ago, viz. to take into wall adhesion into account, most cohesive particulate gels being adhesive too. Since wall adhesive failure is plastic in character, the simplest non-linear elastic model of compressive strength can be combined with the simplest possible model of wall debonding to produce a approximate complete constitutive description. Examples of the use of such a description in detailed modelling of consolidation equilibrium can be found in refs 10-12. Consolidation dynamics with wall adhesion is a substantial modelling challenge remaining to be tackled.

cond-mat.soft

Dynamic and rate-dependent yielding in model cohesive suspensions

An experimental system has been found recently, a coagulated CaCO3 suspension system, which shows very variable yield behaviour depending upon how it is tested and, specifically, at what rate it is sheared. At Péclet numbers Pe > 1 it behaves as a simple Herschel Bulkley liquid, whereas at Pe < 1 highly non-monotonic flow curves are seen. In controlled stress testing it shows hysteresis and shear banding and in the usual type of stress scan, used to measure flow curves in controlled stress mode routinely, it can show very erratic and irreproducible behaviour. All of these features will be attributed here to a dependence of the solid phase, or, yield stress, on the prevailing rate of shear at the yield point. Stress growth curves obtained from step strain-rate testing showed that this rate-dependence was a consequence of Péclet number dependent strain softening. At very low Pe, yield was cooperative and the yield strain was order-one, whereas as Pe approached unity, the yield strain reduced to that needed to break interparticle bonds, causing the yield stress to be greatly reduced. It is suspected that rate-dependent yield could well be the rule rather than the exception for cohesive suspensions more generally. If so, then the Herschel-Bulkley equation can usefully be generalized to read (in simple shear). The proposition that rate-dependent yield might be general for cohesive suspensions is amenable to critical experimental testing by a range of means and along lines suggested.

cond-mat.soft

The yielding of concentrated cohesive suspensions can be deformation rate dependent

The yielding of concentrated cohesive suspensions can be deformation-rate dependent. One consquence of this is that a single suspension can present in one several different ways, depending upon how it is tested, or more generally, how it is caused to flow. We have seen variously Herschel-Bulkley flow, highly non-monotonic flow curves and highly erratic or chaotic yield, all in one suspension. In controlled-rate testing one sees a systematic effect of deformation rate. In controlled stress testing, matters are more subtle. Whereas step-stress creep testing will elicit reproducible behaviour, any attempt to determine a flow curve by, e.g. stepping up or sweeping stress at an inappropriate rate can lead to highly irreproducible behaviour.

cond-mat.soft

The non-monotonic shear-thinning flow of two strongly cohesive concentrated suspensions

The behaviour in simple shear of two concentrated and strongly cohesive mineral suspensions showing highly non-monotonic flow curves is described. Two rheometric test modes were employed, controlled stress and controlled shear-rate. In controlled stress mode the materials showed runaway flow above a yield stress, which, for one of the suspensions, varied substantially in value and seemingly at random from one run to the next, such that the up flow-curve appeared to be quite irreproducible. The down-curve was not though, as neither was the curve obtained in controlled rate mode, which turned out to be triple-valued in the region where runaway flow was seen in controlled rising stress. For this first suspension, the total stress could be decomposed into three parts to a good approximation: a viscous component proportional to a plastic viscosity, a constant isostatic contribution, and a third shear-rate dependent contribution associated with the particulate network which decreased with increasing shear-rate raised to the -7/10th power. In the case of the second suspension, the stress could be decomposed along similar lines, although the strain-rate softening of the solid-phase stress was found to be logarithmic and the irreducible isostatic stress was small. The flow curves are discussed in the light of recent simulations and they conform to a very simple but general rule for non-monotonic behaviour in cohesive suspensions and emulsions, namely that it is caused by strain-rate softening of the solid phase stress.

cond-mat.soft