Hard-sphere dispersions: Small-wave-vector structure-factor measurements in a linear shear flow

Small-scattering-wave-vector structure-factor measurements have been made for model hard-sphere suspensions undergoing a steady linear shear flow. The samples are comprised of sterically stabilized silica particles in cyclohexane and have been well characterized previously by rheological, light scattering, and neutron scattering measurements. These combined measurements provide a strict test of recent theories of microscopic order in suspensions undergoing shear and suggest a picture which unifies several intuitive notions about suspensions undergoing shear flow: distortion of the pair correlation function, clustering, layering, and nonequilibrium phase transitions.