title: Stress enhancement in the delayed yielding of colloidal gels.
abstract: Networks of aggregated colloidal particles are solidlike and can sustain an applied shear stress while exhibiting little or no creep; however, ultimately they will catastrophically fail. We show that the time delay for this yielding decreases in two distinct exponential regimes with applied stress. This behavior is universal and found for a variety of colloidal gel systems. We present a bond-rupture model that quantitatively describes this behavior and highlights the role of mesoscopic structures. Our result gives new insight into the nature of yielding in these soft solid materials.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. joris.sprakel@gmail.com
authors.forename: Joris
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sprakel
authors.forename: Stefan B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Lindström
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Kodger
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Weitz