The measurement of nonlinear shear response of viscoelastic materials is often hindered by edge fracture instabilities. The phenomenon was first addressed theoretically by Tanner and Keentok and ever since has attracted the interest of experimentalists and theorists alike. Despite progress, accounting for or mitigating edge fracture remains a challenge, in particular when dealing with strongly viscoelastic materials such as entangled polymer melts. Here, we present and compare different experimental attempts to delay edge fracture in a cone-and-plate (CP) geometry, including the use of an immiscible fluid bath around the sample (that reduces the stress and interfacial gradients in comparison with the sample/air interface), a cone-partitioned plate (CPP) fixture, and an outer collar attached to the sample's edge (in a CP or CPP fixture). Focusing on the torque signal, we find that the combination of CPP and collar provides the best results. This may indeed help measuring highly elastic materials over an extended range of shear rates and, importantly, contribute to reliably measuring the normal stress coefficients in a cone-partitioned plate tool. It is, therefore, hoped that this simple idea will be further pursued in the direction of improving our current rheometric capabilities.
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March 2024
Research Article|
March 22 2024
A practical guide to mitigate edge fracture instability in sheared polymer melts
Special Collection:
Tanner: 90 Years of Rheology
Benke Li
;
Benke Li
(Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing)
1
FORTH, Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser
, Nikolaou Plastira 100, Heraklion 70013, Greece
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Christina Pyromali
;
Christina Pyromali
(Data curation, Validation, Visualization)
1
FORTH, Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser
, Nikolaou Plastira 100, Heraklion 70013, Greece
2
University of Crete, Department of Materials Science & Technology
, Vasilika Vouton, Heraklion 70013, Greece
3
Agricultural University of Athens, Department of Agricultural Engineering
, Iera Odos 75, Athens 11855, Greece
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Salvatore Costanzo
;
Salvatore Costanzo
(Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – review & editing)
1
FORTH, Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser
, Nikolaou Plastira 100, Heraklion 70013, Greece
2
University of Crete, Department of Materials Science & Technology
, Vasilika Vouton, Heraklion 70013, Greece
4
University of Napoli Federico II, Department of Chemical, Materials and Production Engineering (DICMaPI)
, P.le Tecchio 80, Naples 80125, Italy
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Antonios Mavromanolakis
;
Antonios Mavromanolakis
(Methodology, Validation, Writing – review & editing)
1
FORTH, Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser
, Nikolaou Plastira 100, Heraklion 70013, Greece
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Dimitris Vlassopoulos
Dimitris Vlassopoulos
a)
(Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
1
FORTH, Institute of Electronic Structure & Laser
, Nikolaou Plastira 100, Heraklion 70013, Greece
2
University of Crete, Department of Materials Science & Technology
, Vasilika Vouton, Heraklion 70013, Greece
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: dvlasso@iesl.forth.gr
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: dvlasso@iesl.forth.gr
Physics of Fluids 36, 037148 (2024)
Article history
Received:
November 29 2023
Accepted:
January 12 2024
Citation
Benke Li, Christina Pyromali, Salvatore Costanzo, Antonios Mavromanolakis, Dimitris Vlassopoulos; A practical guide to mitigate edge fracture instability in sheared polymer melts. Physics of Fluids 1 March 2024; 36 (3): 037148. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0189558
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