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College Park, Maryland      June 6 - 10 , 2004

WP42: Rheo-SANS at the NCNR

L. Porcar, B.S. Greenwald (NIST Center for Neutron Research; University of Maryland, College Park), C.J. Glinka (NIST Center for Neutron Research), N. Wagner (University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716), S.-M. Choi (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Korea), J.C. Schulz (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, NSW, Australia)

Shear flow presents a great technological interest because shear-induced complex fluid phases have profound effects on industrial material processing. In order to correlate the unique flow properties exhibited by these complex fluids with their structural deformation, we have developed a device to perform simultaneous measurement of rheology and structure by Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS). Quartz and titanium Couette type flow cells have been designed to fit into a commercial rheometer The setup allows scattering measurements from a range of configurations using both the so-called radial configuration, where the incident neutron beam is parallel to the velocity gradient, to the tangential, where the incident neutron beam is parallel to the flow direction. Couette cells with gaps of 0.5 or 1mm are available and can operate at temperatures ranging from –20°C to 150°C with a solvent trap preventing sample evaporation. The apparatus allows many different rheological tests to be performed e.g. simple shear flow either at constant shear stress or constant shear rate, creep and creep recovery as well as amplitude oscillatory shear deformation, while simultaneously recording scattering data. To illustrate the performance of the equipment, we give a brief report of recent experiments carried out on colloidal suspensions and surfactant mesophases.

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