Shear bands and the evolving microstructure in a drying colloidal film studied with scanning μ-SAXS

Yang, Bin; Smith, Nathan D.; Johannes, Andreas; Burghammer, Manfred; Smith, Mike I.

Abstract

Shear localisation in thin bands is an important process involved in the plastic deformation of materials subject to stress. This process is often sensitive to the sample microstructure (amorphous / crystalline). Here we show using the scanning μ-SAXS technique, how these different microstructures influence the plastic deformations in a drying colloidal film. In crystalline samples, the presence of an ordering transition at the compaction front was directly identified through the development of a six-fold symmetry in the scattering pattern in 20wt% samples. It is shown that plastic deformations in individual groups of particles during the compaction process can be tracked and measured in real time. Higher concentration suspensions were found to result in amorphous structures. The transition between crystalline and amorphous microstructures with initial particle concentration was also found to correlate with the appearance of shear bands. Through 2D spatial mapping of the local film structure, the presence of shear bands in the films was directly related to the microscale spatial variations in strain magnitude and compression direction. Our measurements also showed that shear bands lead to a reduction in the local particle volume fraction ~ 1-2%, indicating significant dilatancy.

Citation

Yang, B., Smith, N. D., Johannes, A., Burghammer, M., & Smith, M. I. (2018). Shear bands and the evolving microstructure in a drying colloidal film studied with scanning μ-SAXS. Scientific Reports, 8, Article 12979. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-31405-6

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 14, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Aug 28, 2018
• Publication Date: Aug 28, 2018
• Deposit Date: Aug 17, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 29, 2018
• Electronic ISSN: 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Article Number: 12979
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-31405-6
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1037335
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-31405-6