Effects of Hydrodynamics on Growth: Spinodal Decomposition under Uniform Shear Flow

Abstract

To investigate the interaction of hydrodynamics and domain growth in phase-separating fluids, the spinodal decomposition of a binary mixture subjected to a uniform and steady shear flow has been studied by light-scattering techniques. We find that the effects of hydrodynamics become important when the distortion produced by shear is faster than the growth of the domains. When this happens, the growth becomes anisotropic and new and unexpected features are detected. Finally, a steady state predicted by theory is observed and compared to the theory.