Self-Organized Criticality in Sheared Suspensions

Authors

L. Corté, New York University
Sharon J. Gerbode, Harvey Mudd CollegeFollow
W. Man, New York University
D. J. Pine, New York University

Document Type

Article

Department

Physics (HMC)

Publication Date

12-2009

Abstract

Recent studies reveal that suspensions of neutrally buoyant non-Brownian particles driven by slow periodic shear can undergo a dynamical phase transition between a fluctuating irreversible steady state and an absorbing reversible state. Using a computer model, we show that such systems exhibit self-organized criticality when a finite particle sedimentation velocity v_s is introduced. Under periodic shear, these systems evolve, without external intervention, towards the shear-dependent critical concentration ϕ_c as v_s is reduced. This state is characterized by power-law distributions in the lifetime and size of fluctuating clusters. Experiments exhibit similar behavior and, as v_s is reduced, yield steady-state values of ϕ that tend towards the ϕ_c corresponding to the applied shear.

Comments

This article is also available from the American Physical Society at http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.248301.

Rights Information

© 2009 American Physical Society

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DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.248301

Recommended Citation

L. Corte, S. J. Gerbode, W. Man, and D. J. Pine, “Self-organized criticality in sheared suspensions” Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 248301 (2009). doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.248301