Phenomenological model for ordered onions under shear flow

Abstract

We propose a phenomenological model for the multi-lamellar vesicles (onions) formation induced by shear flow. In a nonionic surfactant (C$_{12}$E$_4$) system, onion phases under a fixed shear flow within a certain range show the order-disorder transition accompanied with a size jump by changing temperature. Our model can simulate ordered and disordered onion phases with different onion sizes. We show numerical results of the onion formation simulated by the model and also discuss what factors in this system are critical to cause the transition between these two different onion phases.