Yielding and Flow of Soft-Jammed Systems in Elongation

Abstract : So far, yielding and flow properties of soft-jammed systems have only been studied from simple shear and then extrapolated to other flow situations. In particular, simple flows such as elongations have barely been investigated experimentally or only in a nonconstant, partial volume of material. We show that using smooth tool surfaces makes it possible to obtain a prolonged elongational flow over a large range of aspect ratios in the whole volume of material. The normal force measured for various soft-jammed systems with different microstructures shows that the ratio of the elongation yield stress to the shear yield stress is larger (by a factor of around 1.5) than expected from the standard theory which assumes that the stress tensor is a function of the second invariant of the strain rate tensor. This suggests that the constitutive tensor of the materials cannot be determined solely from macroscopic shear measurements.