Quantitative earthquake-like statistical properties of the flow of soft materials below yield stress

P. K. Bera, S. Majumdar, G. Ouillon, D. Sornette and A. K. Sood ()
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P. K. Bera: Indian Institute of Science
S. Majumdar: Raman Research Institute
G. Ouillon: Lithophyse
D. Sornette: ETH Zürich
A. K. Sood: Indian Institute of Science

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The flow behavior of soft materials below the yield stress can be rich and is not fully understood. Here, we report shear-stress-induced reorganization of three-dimensional solid-like soft materials formed by closely packed nematic domains of surfactant micelles and a repulsive Wigner glass formed by anisotropic clay nano-discs having ionic interactions. The creep response of both the systems below the yield stress results in angular velocity fluctuations of the shearing plate showing large temporal burst-like events that resemble seismic foreshocks-aftershocks data measuring the ground motion during earthquake avalanches. We find that the statistical properties of the quake events inside such a burst map on to the scaling relations for magnitude and frequency distribution of earthquakes, given by Gutenberg-Richter and Omori laws, and follow a power-law distribution of the inter-occurrence waiting time. In situ polarized optical microscopy reveals that during these events the system self-organizes to a much stronger solid-like state.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13790-2

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