Understanding how microscopic rearrangements manifest in macroscopic flow responses is one of the central goals of nonlinear rheological studies. Using the sequence-of-physical-processes framework, we present a natural 3D structure-rheology space that temporally correlates the structural and nonlinear viscoelastic parameters. Exploiting the rheo-small-angle neutron scattering (rheo-SANS) techniques, we demonstrate the use of the framework with a model system of polymer-like micelles (PLMs), where we unveil a sequence of microscopic events that micelles experience under dynamic shearing across a range of frequencies. The least-aligned state of the PLMs is observed to migrate from the total strain extreme toward zero strain with increasing frequency. Our proposed 3D space is generic, and can be equally applied to other soft materials under any sort of deformation, such as startup shear or uniaxial extension. This work therefore provides a natural approach for researchers to study complex out-of-equilibrium structure-rheology relationships of soft materials.
Keywords: LAOS; nonlinear rheology; polymer rheology; rheo SANS; structure–rheology relationship; viscoelastic; worm-like micelles.