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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 98 » Issue 4
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 044501 (2007) [4 pages]

Elastic Convection in Vibrated Viscoplastic Fluids

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Hayato Shiba1,2, Jori E. Ruppert-Felsot1, Yoshiki Takahashi1, Yoshihiro Murayama1, Qi Ouyang3, and Masaki Sano1
1Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
2Department of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan
3Department of Physics and Mesoscopic Physics Laboratory, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Received 27 July 2006; published 23 January 2007

We observe a new type of behavior in a shear-thinning yield stress fluid: freestanding convection rolls driven by vertical oscillation. The convection occurs without the constraint of container boundaries, yet the diameter of the rolls is spontaneously selected for a wide range of parameters. The transition to the convecting state occurs without hysteresis when the amplitude of the plate acceleration exceeds a critical value. We find that a nondimensional stress, the stress due to the inertia of the fluid normalized by the yield stress, governs the onset of the convective motion.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.044501
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.044501
PACS:
47.54.−r, 47.55.P−, 89.75.Kd
 
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