Introduction to Complex Fluids (CF) and Soft Condensed Matter (SCM) (2 hours)

Basic Forces, Energies and Timescales in CF and SCM. (5 hours)

Excluded volume interactions, Van Der Waals interactions, Electrostatic interactions, Hydrogen bonding. Relaxation phenomena in CS and SCM.

Fundamentals of Rheology (6 hours)

Different types of flow fields, linear and nonlinear Viscoelasticity, Kinematics and stress, Boltzmann Superposition Principle.

Various Characterization Techniques (6 hours)

Microscopy, Light scattering techniques, Dielectric spectroscopy, Rheo-optics

Polymers (8 hours)

Rheology of dilute polymer solutions: Elementary molecular theories, linear and nonlinear rheology. Rheology of entangled polymers: Reptation theories, Transient network formulations

Colloidal dispersions: (6 hours)

Rheological behavior of dilute and concentrated suspensions of isotropic particles, non-spherical particles, particles in viscoelastic media

Glassy Systems: (6 hours)

Introduction to glass transition. Rheology of amorphous polymers, very concentrated suspensions, emulsions, foams, colloidal gels. Relaxation behavior, yield stress, thixotropic behavior, ageing and rejuvenation.

Books Recommended:

• Ronald G. Larson, The Structure and Rheology of Complex Fluids, Oxford University Press (1998).

• Richard A.L. Jones, Soft Condensed Matter, Oxford University Press (2002).

• Ch. W. Macosko, Rheology: Principles, Measurements, and Applications, Wiley-VCH (1994).

• H. A. Barnes, J. F. Hutton, K. Walters, An introduction to rheology, Elsevier (1989).

• Montgomery T. Shaw  and William J. MacKnight, Introduction to Polymer Viscoelasticity, Wiley-Interscience; (2005)

Grading Policy:

Mid-semester Examination: 25 %

Assignments: 15 %

Presentation and report: 20 %

End Semester Examination: 40 %