Full-field rheo-optical analysis of wormlike and networked micellar structures under uniaxial extensional flow (2507.15562v1)

Abstract: The present study proposes a novel full-field extensional rheo-optical technique to investigate the relationship between the rheological properties and internal structural deformation of complex fluids under uniaxial extensional flow. Macroscopic viscoelasticity from rheological measurements and microscopic birefringence from optical measurements are integrated to evaluate the microstructural deformation and orientation of the fluids under extensional stress. The proposed technique integrates a liquid dripping method with a high-speed polarization camera to measure the extensional stress and flow birefringence simultaneously. In the liquid dripping method, temporal evolution images of the liquid filament diameter for fluids dripping from a nozzle are measured to obtain the extensional stress loading on the filament. These images are acquired using the high-speed polarization camera that captures full-field two-dimensional (2D) birefringence with high spatiotemporal resolution. Wormlike and networked micellar solutions of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium salicylate (NaSal) with varying concentrations of CTAB and NaSal are employed as the measurement targets. Consequently, we successfully visualized temporally developing images of the flow birefringence field of uniaxially extending micellar solutions induced by the orientation of micelles. Furthermore, the proposed technique supports investigating the conditions for establishing the stress-optical rule, which is the linear relationship between stress and birefringence. The stress-optical coefficient, which is a proportionality constant indicating the sensitivity of birefringence to stress, is analyzed from these measurements. The stress-optical coefficient under uniaxial extensional flow, obtained using the proposed technique, is confirmed to be comparable to that under shear flow.