Population correlation function P(t) has been used to examine the mechanism of breakage and coalescence of clusters at steady-state under shear, the results are in qualitative a greement with exPeriments. The research indicates that with a weak potential the mechanism of breakage and coalescence of clusters at steady-state under shear is predomnately controlled by the paticle-particle model, but that with a strong potential the mechanism shifts to that of clustercluster for large clusters; for small clusters, however, the mechanism of particle-particle model seems still to remain predondnate, further work needs to be done.
