RUSC (Roskilde University Shear Code)

Description

Technical info

The piezoelectric shear rheometry technique is a technique for broadband (typically 1 mHz to 50 kHz, depending
on used PSG device) measurements of the complex shear modulus on liquids and solids. Primary focus for the
application of the technique has been on glass-forming liquids close to the glass transition (moduli in GPa range),
but it is also been applied to solids and softer systems.

The main idea of the technique is to measure the frequency-dependent complex capacitance of the PSG which by
utilising the piezoelectric effect couples mechanical properties of the sample with the electrical properties of the
gauge. The frequency-dependent shear modulus of the sample can then be obtained by advanced mathematical
modelling and data analysis, which can be performed with the RUSC software.

The technique, modelling, and PSG devices are described in the two papers:

"Piezoelectric shear rheometry: Further developments in experimental implementation and data extraction", Mathias
Mikkelsen, Kira L. Eliasen, Niclas Lindemann, Kevin Moch, Roland Böhmer, Hossein Ali Karimi-Varzaneh, Jorge
Lacayo-Pineda, Bo Jakobsen, Kristine Niss, Tage Christensen, and Tina Hecksher, Journal of Rheology, 66, 983
(2022). https://doi.org/10.1122/8.0000379

and

"A rheometer for the measurement of a high shear modulus covering more than seven decades of frequency below 50
kHz", Tage Christensen, N. Boye Olsen, Review Scientific Instruments 66, 5019 (1995). 
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1146126