Giant stress fluctuations at the jamming transition.
We study the stress response to a steady imposed shear rate in a concentrated suspension of colloidal particles. We show that, in a small range of concentrations and shear rates, stress exhibits giant fluctuations. The amplitude of these fluctuations obeys a power-law behavior, up to the apparition of a new branch of flow, leading to an excess of high amplitude fluctuations which exhibit a well-defined periodicity.
Lootens
Didier
D
P.P.M.D., CNRS UMR 7615, ESPCI, 10 rue Vauquelin 75231, Paris Cedex 05, France.
Van Damme
Henri
H
Hébraud
Pascal
P