The Indian Society of Rheology (ISR) was established on 4 February 1982, with the goal of advancing knowledge relating to the physics of deformation and flow of matter. Over the past 15-20 years, India has witnessed a steady increase in the number of researchers from across disciplines who are engaged in the pursuit of scientific investigations of complex fluids/soft matter. Rheology has become an important tool to interrogate the structure and dynamics of this state of matter. There has also been an increasing interest among industrial R&D groups in the country to use rheology as a tool for quality control, benchmarking and product development. In this backdrop, the Indian Society of Rheology (ISR) has been rejuvenated in 2012
What is Rheology?
Rheology is the study of the deformation and flow of matter. The subject is of widespread applicability within both academic (physics, biology, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry, etc.) as well as industrial settings (quality control and rheology of food products, concrete, rubber, pharmaceuticals, etc.), and is interdisciplinary in nature.
Primarily, the materials under study in rheology exhibit a combination of elastic, viscous and plastic behaviour when subject to different kinematics. The diversity of materials studied ranges from asphalt and molten lava flows at one end to shaving foam and living cells at the other.
Theoretical rheology aims to establish relationships between the imposed deformation and the response of the material to the deformation. Experimental rheology (rheometry) is primarily concerned with the measurement of rheological quantities and with probing the internal microstructure of soft matter.