Nonlinear material functions under medium amplitude oscillatory shear (MAOS) flow

Dynamic oscillatory shear flow has been widely used to investigate viscoelastic material functions. In particular, small amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS) tests have become the canonical method for characterizing the linear viscoelastic properties of complex fluids based on strong theoretical background and plenty of experimental results. Recently, there has been increasing interest in the use of large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) tests for the characterization of complex fluids. However, it is difficult to define material functions in LAOS regime due to an infinite number of higher harmonic contributions. For this reason, many recent studies have focused on intrinsic nonlinearities obtained in medium amplitude oscillatory shear (MAOS) regime, which is a subdivision of the full LAOS regime. In this study, we reviewed recent experimental and theoretical results of nonlinear material functions in the MAOS regime, which contain four MAOS moduli (two first-harmonic moduli and two third-harmonic moduli) from Fourier and power series of shear stress, and a nonlinear material function Q(0) and its elastic and viscous parts from Fourier-transform rheology (FT rheology). Furthermore, to identify linear-to-nonlinear transitions in stress response of model polystyrene (PS) solutions, we presented Pipkin diagrams in frequency ranges from the rubbery plateau region to the terminal region.