Tuning the Shear Thickening Response using Acoustic Perturbations

ORAL

Abstract

Shear thickening behavior of dense particle suspensions is generally not considered an externally tunable response. In this work, we present a novel method to dynamically tune the rheological response of a non-Brownian shear thickening suspension using local acoustic perturbations. We apply resonant perturbations in two different directions orthogonal to the primary shear flow and show a tunable viscosity response of the suspension in the transitioning regime and the shear-thickened regime of the flow curve. We find that the acoustic perturbations increase the onset strain rate of shear thickening in addition to decreasing the viscosity (de-thickening) of the suspension. We attribute the mechanism of de-thickening to the breaking of shear-induced force chains and disruption of solid-solid frictional contact between the particles by local acoustic perturbations. With the temporal amplitude modulation of the perturbations, we further demonstrate a periodic thickening/de-thickening of the suspension and show that the response is dynamically tunable.

–

Presenters

  • Prateek Sehgal

    Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Cornell University

Authors

  • Prateek Sehgal

    Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Cornell University

  • Meera Ramaswamy

    Department of Physics, Cornell University, Cornell University

  • Itai Cohen

    Department of Physics, Cornell University, Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Physics, Cornell University, Department of Physics, LASSP, Cornell University, Physics Department, Cornell University, Cornell University

  • Brian J. Kirby

    Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Cornell University