The Amherst Rheology Course - ARC22

"Creating Synergy between Rheological Experiments and Theory "
Four-Day Rheology Course co-directed by:
H. H. Winter, Amherst Massachusetts/USA and M. H. Wagner, Berlin/ Germany

Location: remote video instruction
Timing: eight lectures between May 10, 2022 to May 13, 2022
Lectures start at 10:00 Eastern Standard Time USA (EST)
Language: English
Information at: https://rheology.tripod.com/TOP_ARC22.htm

This course will present a quantitative approach to rheology. We will cover the handling of data from rheological experiments, extraction of material parameters, plotting, overlay, and modelling with theory. Short Zoom lectures on rheology fundamentals will be followed by hands-on exercises to practice the lectured material. Participants will use graphical software on their own PCs for these practice sessions, but will have plenty of personal guidance over Zoom. The objective is to generate an interdisciplinary group experience, in which we will discuss rheological experiments, theory, and application. Our interactive teaching tools will facilitate this process and experience. It is highly recommended that each participant projects the video instruction on a separate screen (using the projection system in a conference room; or any type of Mac or iPad), while simultaneously using as second device a personal PC for hands-on exercises under step-by-step instruction.

Software Updates

IRIS Rheo-Hub was last updated on December 19, 2021. Installation, activation, and updating is all moved to remote interaction with IRIS users. Earlier, we had involved USB hardlocks to operate IRIS. Not any more. The new IRIS is hardlock-free.

Teaching Rheology with IRIS Rheo-Hub

In the 2019 Fall Semester, the University of Stuttgart, Germany, began to support their regular rheology course with IRIS Rheo-Hub as teaching tool. Each student is given access to the software so that the teacher, jointly will the entire class, can quantitatively analyze data from rheological experiments. This includes plotting, overlay of material functions, extraction of material parameters, modelling with theory, data storage and retrieval and more.

ARC19 in Slovenia

Amherst Rheology Course 2019 (ARC19): “Synergy of Experiment with Theory in Rheology”. Time and Location: April 07/08, 2019, in Portoroz, Slovenia; taught in connection with Annual European Rheology Conference. Experimentalists and theoreticians taught the course jointly: Manfred H. Wagner, Berlin, Germany; Ole Hassager, Lyngby, Denmark; H. Henning Winter, Amherst MA, USA Objective of Course: A quantitative approach to rheology is presented and taught in tutorials: handling of data from rheological experiments, plotting, overlay, extraction of material parameters, modelling with theory, data storage and retrieval and more. On two parallel screens, short lectures on rheology fundamentals will be combined with hands-on tutorials. This will generate an interdisciplinary group experience of discussing rheological experiments and theory and application. On the first day, participants will master rheology on a quantitative level and also will learn the underlying concepts that lead to the quantitative results. Most of first day’s focus is on linear viscoelasticity. The second day has a strong focus on non-linear viscoelasticity and the underlying theory. Continued tutorials at the end of the second day will allow participants to see the rheology of their own materials in new ways, discover, and draw quantitative results. Experiment and theory are well integrated in the new teaching tools of the course.

ARC18 in Luxembourg:

Amherst Rheology Course (ARC18): “Synergy of Experiment with Theory in Rheology”. Time and Location: March 21/22, 2018 in Luxembourg ; taught in connection with the 2018 “Joint Symposium of Belgian Group of Rheology and German Rheological Society”. Experimentalists and theoreticians taught the course jointly: Manfred Wagner, Berlin, Germany; Jörg Baller, Luxembourg; H. Henning Winter, Amherst MA, USA
ARC15 in Berlin:
"Synergy of Experiment with Theory in Rheology"
Two-Day Rheology Course co-directed by: H. H. Winter, Amherst Massachusetts/USA and M. H. Wagner, Berlin/ Germany
Location: Berlin/Germany. Time: March 23-24, 2015; Language: English
Acceptance is limited to 35 participants

IRIS Rheo-Hub; release on April 2014; compatible with Windows7 and Windows8

Many more features have been added over the years according to suggestions of IRIS users.

Added features in IRIS 9 (release: June 2005)

Calculation of molecular weight distribution
* Creation of GEX from Mn, Mw, Mz
* MWD from G', G" using the model by Cocchini and Nobile

A first simulation module was introduced
* NAPLES of Masubuchi, Ianniruberto, and Marrucci (visualizaion only) for linear chains, stars, pom-pom, tree, blends of two components, and block copolymers
* Preparation of NAPLES data input with IRIS dialog

Models
* MSF now takes up to 10 shear/elongation rates
* Wagner damping function model dialog is now the same as MSF
* Doi-Edwards Independent Alignment model implemented
* Kroger-Hess model implemented
* Tube dilation

o also for elongational flow (uniaxial, equibiaxial, planar elongation)

o plotting unrelaxed fraction as a function of relaxation time or inverse relaxation time

Data and file handling
* Preview of ASCII data files included
* Multiple templates for ASCII file input
* Multiple ASCII file input
* Double click on IRIS data file (*.iwd) opens it in IRIS (not in Notepad anymore).
*.iwd files can also be dragged onto IRIS now
* Drawing order of curves (Sequence of data sets in Project Explorer) can be modified
* Values of viscosity fit data points can be shown in a spreadsheet

Material functions
* Glass temperature can be edited
* Plot of shift factors vs Tg/T and (T-Tg)/T
* aT: Implementation of Vogel-Fulcher parameters
* bT: Only 2nd order polynomial now
* b2: Special equations for damping function added
* Deviation between dynamic experimental data and spectrum fit can be displayed
* Difference between material functions can be calculated (from one or two different data sets).

Graphics
* Tick marks can be adjusted
* Tick on opposite axis possible
* Axes can be freely adjusted with the mouse
* Autoscaling can now be disabled
* Log scaling begin and end at intermediate values (not full decades), e.g. at 5 ·102 instead of 102
* Linear scaling: first major tick can be different from axis start point, e.g. axis starts at -0.5 and first tick is at 0
* Additional margins can be automatically added.
* Rescaling can now also be done for each entire axis. In this case, the rescaling factor is added to the unit label.

General user friendliness
* New context (right-click) menus for

o Viscosity fit lines

o Labels

o Scaling

Send your questions and suggestions to H. H. Winter at IRISrheo@.yahoo.com