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Shear thickening and migration in granular suspensions.
Abdoulaye Fall1, Anaël Lemaître, François Bertrand
1Université Paris Est, Laboratoire Navier (CNRS UMR 8205), Champs sur Marne, France.
Physical Review Letters
|January 15, 2011
Summary
Dense suspensions exhibit shear thickening due to particle migration, not an intrinsic property. This study reveals a continuous transition to Bagnoldian behavior, challenging previous assumptions about granular materials.
Area of Science:
- Rheology
- Fluid Dynamics
- Materials Science
Background:
- Dense suspensions of non-Brownian particles are known to exhibit shear thickening.
- Understanding the mechanisms behind shear thickening is crucial for predicting material behavior under stress.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the emergence of shear thickening in dense suspensions of non-Brownian particles.
- To clarify the relationship between material heterogeneity, particle migration, and shear thickening behavior.
Main Methods:
- Combined magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for local velocity and concentration measurements.
- Macroscopic rheometry experiments to analyze bulk material properties.
- Utilized scaling analysis to predict material behavior.
Main Results:
- Observed heterogeneous material in steady state with a continuous transition to Bagnoldian (shear stress proportional to shear rate squared) behavior at low shear rates.
- Identified unexpectedly fast grain migration as the cause of heterogeneity, linked to Bagnoldian rheology.
- Demonstrated that macroscopic transient discontinuous shear thickening is a consequence of particle migration, not an intrinsic property.
Conclusions:
- Shear thickening in dense granular suspensions is driven by particle migration and associated heterogeneity.
- The observed Bagnoldian behavior emerges continuously and is linked to grain migration.
- Discontinuous shear thickening is a transient phenomenon resulting from migration, not a fundamental property of these suspensions.
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