Tensorial Constitutive Models for Disordered Foams, Dense Emulsions, and other Soft Nonergodic Materials

Abstract

In recent years, the paradigm of `soft glassy matter' has been used to describe diverse nonergodic materials exhibiting strong local disorder and slow mesoscopic rearrangement. As so far formulated, however, the resulting `soft glassy rheology' (SGR) model treats the shear stress in isolation, effectively `scalarizing' the stress and strain rate tensors. Here we offer generalizations of the SGR model that combine its nontrivial aging and yield properties with a tensorial structure that can be specifically adapted, for example, to the description of fluid film assemblies or disordered foams.

18 pages, 4 figures