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Collective rearrangement at the onset of flow of a polycrystalline hexagonal columnar phase

Teresa Bauer, Julian Oberdisse, Laurence Ramos

cond-mat.softarXiv:cond-mat/0612481

Abstract

Creep experiments on polycrystalline surfactant hexagonal columnar phases show a power law regime, followed by a drastic fluidization before reaching a final stationary flow. The scaling of the fluidization time with the shear modulus of the sample and stress applied suggests that the onset of flow involves a bulk reorganization of the material. This is confirmed by X-ray scattering under stress coupled to in situ rheology experiments, which show a collective reorientation of all crystallites at the onset of flow. The analogy with the fracture of heterogeneous materials is discussed.

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