arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Sujata Tarafdar.
A drop of aqueous potato starch gel with a certain mole fraction of NaCl, when dried on a glass slide, exhibits strong segregation and intricate pattern formation phenomena. The salt forms radial dendritic crystalline aggregates near the centre, with the starch separating out in the form of a transparent band at the periphery. Photographs and micrographs show a series of concentric rings with different texture.
Strongly non-Newtonian fluids namely, aqueous gels of starch, are shown to exhibit visco-elastic behavior, when subjected to a load. We study arrowroot and potato starch gels. When a droplet of the fluid is sandwiched between two glass plates and compressed, the area of contact between the fluid and plates increases in an oscillatory manner. This is unlike Newtonian fluids, where the area increases monotonically in a similar situation. The periphery moreover, develops an instability, which looks similar to Saffman Taylor fingers. This is not normally seen under compression. The loading history is also found to affect the manner of spreading. We attempt to describe the non-Newtonian nature of the fluid through a visco-elastic model incorporating generalized calculus. This is shown to reproduce qualitatively the oscillatory variation in the surface strain.
Starch solutions, which are strongly non-Newtonian, show a surface instability, when subjected to a load. A droplet of the fluid is sandwiched between two glass plates and a weight varying from 1 to 5 kgs. is placed on the top plate. The area of contact between the fluid and plate increases in an oscillatory manner, unlike Newtonian fluids in a similar situation. The periphery moreover, develops a viscous fingering like instability, which is not expected under compression. We attempt to model the non-Newtonian nature of the fluid through a visco-elastic model incorporating generalized calculus. This is shown to exhibit a qualitatively similar oscillatory variation in the surface strain.
Spreading of different types of fluid on substrates under an impressed force is an interesting problem. Here we study spreading of four fluids, having different hydrophilicity and viscosity on two substrates - glass and perspex, under an external force. The area of contact of fluid and solid is video-photographed and its increase with time is measured. The results for different external forces can be scaled onto a common curve. We try to explain the nature of this curve on the basis of existing theoretical treatment where either the no-slip condition is used or slip between fluid and substrate is introduced. We find that of the eight cases under study, in five cases quantitative agreement is obtained using a slip coefficient.
Composite materials are often stronger than their constituents. We demonstrate this through a spring network model on a square lattice. Two different types of sites (A and B) are distributed randomly on the lattice, representing two different constituents. There are springs of three types connecting them (A-A, B-B and A-B). We assign two spring parameters for each type of spring. these are a spring constant and a breaking threshold. Here we show that intermediate compositions may require higher energy to induce the first sample-spanning break than either pure A or pure B. So the breaking energy goes through a maximum as the concentration of one component varies from 0 to 100%. The position and height of the peak depend on the spring parameters. Moreover, certain combinations of spring parameters can produce composites, which do not break upto a specified strain limit. Thus a fracture 'percolation threshold' may be defined.
We study squeeze flow of two different fluids (castor oil and ethylene glycol) between a pair of glass plates and a pair of perspex plates, under an applied load. The film thickness is found to vary with time as a power-law, where the exponent increases with load. After a certain time interval the area of fluid-solid contact saturates to a constant value. This saturation area, increases with load at different rates for different fluid-solid combinations.
Cracking and peeling of a layer of clay on desiccation has been simulated using a spring model. A vertical section through the layer with finite thickness is represented by a rectangular array of nodes connected by linear springs on a square lattice. The effect of reduction of the natural length of the springs, which mimics the drying is studied. Varying the strength of adhesion between sample and substrate and the rate of penetration of the drying front produces an interesting phase diagram, showing cross-over from peeling to cracking behavior. Changes in the number and width of cracks on varying the layer thickness is observed to reproduce experimental reports.
Crack patterns in a layer of laponite gel allowed to dry in a static electric field are studied. Crack patterns in natural and synthetic clays have been studied extensively with interesting results. This is the first report of such an observation in a radial electric field. The nano-sized disc-like laponite particles carry a quadrupole moment due to their charge distribution. The interaction of the quadrupole moment with the field gradient in a non-uniform field of radial symmetry is probably responsible for the characteristic pattern observed. The cracks start radially from the positive electrode. The same geometry with no field does not produce the characteristic pattern, neither does a uniform field with rectangular geometry.
A study of crack patterns in laponite films of different thickness is presented. Two cracking regimes are observed. The earlier with a higher rate of desiccation and shrinking has predominantly four-fold vertices in the crack network, while the later regime has less volume shrinking and forms mainly three-fold vertices. The pattern shows a self-similarity under coarse-graining. The graph of area covered by the cracks versus minimum crack-width resolved, scales with the film thickness. Curves representing crack area for different thickness can thus be made to collapse onto a single curve.
Viscous fingers have been produced in the lifting Hele-Shaw cell, with concentric circular grooves etched onto the lower plate. The invading fluid (air) enters the defending newtonian fluid - olive oil as fingers proceeding radially inwards towards the centre. The fingers are interrupted at the circular groove, and reform as secondary fingers. The effect of the grooves is to speed up the fingering process considerably and the fingers now reach the centre much faster. We explain this by comparing the variation in velocity of the fingers in the normal HS cell and the grooved cells with time. In the normal HS cell the fingers move fastest on initial formation and slow down later. Since in case of the grooved plate, the fingers reform and receive a boost in their speed each time they encounter a groove, the fingers proceed to the centre faster. PACS nos. 47.20.Gv, 47.54.+r, 68.03.-g
A growth model for porous sedimentary rocks is proposed, using a simple computer simulation algorithm. We generate the structure by ballistic deposition of particles with a bimodal size distribution. Porosity and specific surface area are calculated varying the proportion of small and larger particles. Permeability and its variation with porosity are studied. The fractal nature of the pore space is also discussed.