Editorial overview: Rheology of soft materials: Recent progresses

Abstract

We are surrounded by materials and rheology-everything you see are materials that deform and flow-even if the deformation of some materials is not so obvious. Rheology is just such a science to study how materials deform and flow when forces are applied to them. The foundation of rheology lies on theories describing ideal materials, i.e., ideal solid with elastic response, and ideal liquids showing viscous response. However, real materials generally have intermediate behavior between these two theoretical extremes of mechanical behaviour. In particular, soft materials such as colloids, polymers, foams, gels, granular materials, personal care products, liquids crystals, as well as most of biological materials, exhibit both elastic and viscous properties. This rheology themed issue showcases recent multifaceted progresses in the rheology of soft materials. The ten papers we collected can be divided into four categories: instruments or tools, papers on rheology of soft materials, rheology of polymer liquids, and more theoretical concerns on yield stress.