Origins of Thixotropy

Soft-sphere scaling laws and nonequilibrium particle-dynamics simulations show that time-dependent shear-thinning behavior involving structural ordering (thixotropy), typically seen in complex colloidal dispersions, derives from a first-order thermodynamic phase transition between a normal shearing fluid and a partially ordered smectic phase. The transition stems from a perturbation of the equilibrium fluid freezing point by the applied strain rate.