Abstract
The shear-banding formation process of wormlike micellar solutions is investigated. The distributions of the flow-induced birefringence and the orientation angle in a concentric cylinder flow cell are evaluated by using a cross-polarizers technique. The birefringence and the angle are almost constant along the radial direction at low shear rate. The high orientation band (H-band) and the SIS state band (SIS-band) are formed when the shear rate exceeds 1s^<-1>. The fluctuations of the birefringence and the angle in the bands are synchronized with stress oscillation at high shear rate. But as for the stress optical coefficient C, only the value of the SIS-band fluctuates significantly.
