We study the flow of concentrated hard-sphere colloidal suspensions along smooth, nonstick walls using cone-plate rheometry and simultaneous confocal microscopy. In the glass regime, the global flow shows a transition from Herschel-Bulkley behavior at large shear rate to a characteristic Bingham slip response at small rates, absent for ergodic colloidal fluids. Imaging reveals both the “solid” microstructure during full slip and the local nature of the “slip to shear” transition. Both the local and global flow are described by a phenomenological model, and the associated Bingham slip parameters exhibit characteristic scaling with size and concentration of the hard spheres.

• Received 9 July 2008

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.258301