https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2008-10390-7
Regular Article
Gravitational compression of colloidal gels
Department of Physics and HSEAS, Harvard University, Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford street, 02138, Cambridge, MA, USA
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Received:
13
May
2008
Revised:
10
September
2008
Published online:
18
November
2008
Abstract
We study the compression of depletion gels under the influence of a gravitational stress by monitoring the time evolution of the gel interface and the local volume fraction, 
, inside the gel. We find is not constant throughout the gel. Instead, there is a volume fraction gradient that develops and grows along the gel height as the compression process proceeds. Our results are correctly described by a non-linear poroelastic model that explicitly incorporates the -dependence of the gravitational, elastic and viscous stresses acting on the gel.
PACS: 82.70.Gg Gels and sols – / 47.56.+r Flows through porous media – / 82.70.Dd Colloids –
Present address: School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 837 State street, 30332-0430, Atlanta, GA, USA
Present address: Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program, Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, 837 State street, 44242, Kent, OH, USA
© EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2009
