Comparison of stress-controlled and strain-controlled rheometers for large amplitude oscillatory shear

In linear viscoelastic region, it is well known that dynamic modulus and dynamic compliance can be converted to each other. However, it is questionable whether there exists an interconversion between large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) data measured from different types of rheometers—stress-controlled and strain-controlled rheometers. Hence, we tried to prove the existence by use of polyethylene oxide (PEO) aqueous solutions with well-developed entanglements. From this experiment, we can conclude that a stress-controlled rheometer can simulate LAOS behavior measured from a strain-controlled rheometer under the conditions where inertia effect is not significant. Furthermore, it is investigated whether the LAOS data of the stress-controlled rheometer obey stress–frequency superposition as the strain–frequency superposition found by Cho et al. (J Rheol 54:27–63, 2010) from LAOS data measured by the strain-controlled rheometer. This scaling relation shows that the dimensionless stress amplitude is a function of zeta which is the product of the stress amplitude and linear viscoelastic function J′(ω). The plot shows that all of the data are superposed in a single curve without regard to frequency, molecular weight, and concentration of PEO aqueous solutions.