382c Non-Brownian Microrheology of a Fluid-Gel Interface

Erik K. Hobbie1, S. Lin-Gibson1, and Satish Kumar2. (1) NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, (2) Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, 151 Amundson Hall, 421 Washington Ave. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

We use stroboscopic video microscopy to study the motion and stability of a planar fluid-gel interface under simple steady shear flow. External noise plays a role analogous to temperature, but with periodic fluctuations associated with the repeated build-up and release of stress. From the motion of the interface, we extract the rheological properties of the underlying gel, pointing toward potential applications in the area of non-Brownian optical microrheology.