Fundamental Structural Rearrangements
in a Flowing Glass
Frans Spaepen and David A. Weitz

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A fundamental property of all glasses is that they flow, albeit
at very long time scales if they are far from the glass transition.
Such flow necessarily entails structural rearrangements of the
constituent particles. Despite their importance in our understanding
of the behavior of glasses, such rearrangements can not be directly
observed with traditional glassy materials, and instead can be
studied only by computer simulation. Spaepen and Weitz used
a colloidal glass, visualized with confocal microscopy, to directly
observe these structural rearrangements by subjecting the glass
to a slow shear strain to induce flow. They showed that the rearrangement
events are highly localized, with a core extending over about
three particle radii. The elasticity of the glass causes coupling
between events with increasing strain, ultimately leading to a
percolating network of rearranging particles. The figure isolates
the rearranging particles and shows the development of the network
as the strain is increased from ~1% to ~2% to ~3%, going left
to right. This highlights the critical role of structural rearrangements
in flow of glasses, and illustrates unexpected coupling between
them.
Last Modified October 15, 2007.
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