The build-up and relaxation of stresses in a glass-forming soft-sphere mixture under shear: A computer simulation study

Molecular-dynamics computer simulations in conjunction with Lees-Edwards boundary conditions are used to investigate a glass-forming binary Yukawa fluid under shear. The transition from the elastic response to plastic flow is elucidated by studying the stress relaxation after switching off the shear. We find a slow stress relaxation starting from states in the elastic regime and a fast one starting from states in the plastic-flow regime. We show that these relaxation patterns are related to a different distribution of local microscopic stresses in both cases.