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Shear thickening in a model colloidal suspension.

Jerome Delhommelle1, J Petravic

  • 1Department of Chemical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, 118 Olin Hall, Nashville, Tennesee 37235-1604, USA. jerome.delhommelle@vanderbilt.edu

The Journal of Chemical Physics
|October 19, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Shear thickening in colloidal suspensions occurs when particles jam, forming chains. This transition, driven by solvent expulsion, matches simple fluid behavior, proving jamming alone causes thickening.

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Area of Science:

  • Rheology
  • Colloidal Science
  • Computational Physics

Background:

  • Colloidal suspensions exhibit complex flow behaviors.
  • Shear thickening is a phenomenon where viscosity increases with shear rate.
  • Understanding the microscopic origins of shear thickening is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the rheological properties of model colloidal suspensions.
  • To elucidate the relationship between particle interactions, solvent behavior, and shear thickening.
  • To determine the fundamental mechanisms driving viscosity increase in suspensions.

Main Methods:

  • Molecular-dynamics simulations were employed.
  • Analysis of particle-solvent interactions and structural changes.
  • Comparison of suspension behavior with simple fluid criteria.

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Main Results:

  • Identified a transition from low-viscosity (solvent-facilitated flow) to high-viscosity (particle jamming) regimes.
  • Observed solvent expulsion from inter-particle spaces in the high-viscosity regime.
  • Demonstrated that colloidal jamming, not lubrication forces, triggers shear thickening.

Conclusions:

  • Jamming-induced particle chaining is the primary cause of shear thickening in these model suspensions.
  • The shear thickening criterion in suspensions is consistent with that of simple fluids.
  • Jamming alone is sufficient to induce shear thickening, independent of lubrication divergence.