Spinodal Decomposition of Binary Mixtures in Uniform Shear Flow

The spinodal decomposition of binary mixtures in uniform shear flow is studied in the context of the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation, approximated at one-loop order. We show that the structure factor obeys a generalized dynamical scaling with different growth exponents αₓ0ex0ex=0ex0ex5/4 and αy0ex0ex=0ex0ex1/4 in the flow and in the shear directions, respectively. The excess viscosity Δη after reaching a maximum relaxes to zero as γ^-2t^-3/2, γ being the shear rate. Δη and other observables exhibit log-time periodic oscillations which can be interpreted as due to a growth mechanism where stretching and breakup of domains cyclically occur.