Models of tensorial rheology of disordered soft materials

In recent years, the paradigm of `soft glassy matter' has been used to describe diverse nonergodic materials exhibiting strong local disorder and slow mesoscopic rearrangements. As so far formulated, however, the resulting `soft glassy rheology' (SGR) model treats the shear stress in isolation, effectively `scalarizing' the stress and strain rate tensors. Here we offer generalizations of the SGR model that combine its nontrivial aging and yield properties with a tensorial structure that can be specifically adapted, for example, to the description of fluid film assemblies or disordered emulsions and foams.