The yielding and the linear-to-nonlinear viscoelastic transition of an elastoviscoplastic material

Abstract

Elastoviscoplastic materials present a transition from a gel-like to a liquidlike state induced by shearing: While the first is primarily elastic, the second is predominantly viscous. The point that characterizes this transition is usually known as the yield point, which is associated to critical quantities such as yield stress and/or yield strain. Another characteristic of elastoviscoplastic materials is the transition from linear to nonlinear viscoelasticity. In the current work, a commercial hair gel, which is an elastoviscoplastic material, was tested in two rotational rheometers in order to evaluate these two transition points. Stress oscillatory amplitude sweeps at different frequencies were performed and a Fourier-Transform analysis was applied to the results in order to determine the linear viscoelastic limit. The linear viscoelastic limit stresses and strains at different frequencies were then compared to quantities that are usually associated to the yield point: The extrapolated zero-shear-rate stress obtained from the equilibrium flow curve, the minimum stress required to start up flows in creep experiments, the stress overshoot reached in constant shear rate experiments and the G′-and-G″ crossover stress determined through oscillatory amplitude sweeps. The results showed that the stresses and strains obtained as the linear viscoelastic limits were smaller than the critical quantities associated to the yield point for all evaluated cases. Although the critical quantities depend on the experimental condition, the linear viscoelastic limit strain was remarkably constant. Additionally, the linear viscoelastic limit strain was found to be in the same order of magnitude of the strain that characterizes the onset of plastic behavior in recovery experiments. This suggests that the beginning of the transition from a completely structured state of elastoviscoplastic materials to an unstructured state might be associated to the threshold of nonlinear viscoelasticity.