| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/J38451/01 |
| Title: |
RHEOLOGY OF POLYMER COLLOIDS: EFFECTS OF DEFORMABILITY AND SURFACE ROUGHNESS |
| Principal Investigator: |
Woodcock, Professor L |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Department: |
Chemical Engineering |
| Organisation: |
University of Bradford |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
18 November 1993 |
Ends: |
17 November 1996 |
Value (£): |
130,979
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Complex fluids & soft solids |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Previous studies have combined computer simulations with rheological experiments on the simplest possible system; monodispersed hard-sphere colloidal particles, suspended in a Newtonian medium. To investigate the effect of particle deformability, a polymerisation scheme including a small portion of cross linking agent is proposed. This should produce less compacted particles which interact with the dispersion medium; careful choice of the solvent swells the particles to different extents making them deformable with respect to weak hydrodynamic and osmotic stresses. The rheological properties of suspensions of these particles can then be characterised against those from ideal particles. The ideal particle were thought to be perfectly smooth, however, improvements in the resolution of the microscope showed surface roughness. This could be due to the steric stabiliser, therefore the polymerisation will be repeated with different molecular weights of stabiliser. Rheological measurements in custom-designed glass shear cells, for flow visualisation, and with fitted transducers for osmotic pressure determinations, will give new insights into the effect of deformability and surface roughness on the constitutive rheological relations and osmotic equations of state of these model colloids.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.brad.ac.uk |