@article {155881, title = {Stress enhancement in the delayed yielding of colloidal gels}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, volume = {106}, number = {24}, year = {2011}, pages = {248303}, abstract = {Networks of aggregated colloidal particles are solidlike and can sustain an applied shear stress while exhibiting little or no creep; however, ultimately they will catastrophically fail. We show that the time delay for this yielding decreases in two distinct exponential regimes with applied stress. This behavior is universal and found for a variety of colloidal gel systems. We present a bond-rupture model that quantitatively describes this behavior and highlights the role of mesoscopic structures. Our result gives new insight into the nature of yielding in these soft solid materials.}, url = {https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.248303}, author = {Sprakel, Joris and Lindstroem, Stefan B. and Kodger, Thomas E. and Weitz, David A} }