MICELLAR SOLUTIONS IN SHEAR - VISCOSITY AND NORMAL STRESS

We apply a recent non-equilibrium statistical mechanical theory for nonionic micellar solutions to study their viscoelastic properties. It is shown that shear-induced growth in average micellar size does not lead to the shear-thickening observed experimentally in ionic micellar systems, suggesting that intermicelle electrostatic interactions may be responsible for the viscosity build-up. Instead, we find shear thinning and gradual increase of normal stress throughout the studied range of shear rates.