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Updated: May 27, 2026

Challenges in Rheological Characterization of Highly Concentrated Suspensions — A Case Study for Screen-printing Silver Pastes
Published on: April 10, 2017
Unifying suspension and granular rheology
François Boyer1, Élisabeth Guazzelli, Olivier Pouliquen
1IUSTI, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, UMR 6595, 5 rue E Fermi, 13453 Marseille cedex 13, France. francois.boyer@polytech.univ-mrs.fr
Dense suspensions exhibit viscoplastic behavior, unifying them with granular media under a frictional rheology framework. This study characterizes their behavior using a dimensionless viscous number, advancing understanding of jamming transitions.
Area of Science:
- Rheology
- Materials Science
- Physics of granular media
Background:
- Dense suspensions and granular media share complex flow behaviors.
- Understanding their rheology is crucial for predicting material properties and processing.
- Existing models often treat these systems separately.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the rheology of dense suspensions using a novel shear cell.
- To unify the description of dense suspensions and granular media under a common rheological framework.
- To characterize suspension behavior near the jamming transition.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an original pressure-imposed shear cell for rheological measurements.
- Characterized viscoplastic behavior by analyzing the friction coefficient (μ) and volume fraction (ϕ).
- Introduced and applied a dimensionless viscous number (I(v)) for unified description.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated that dense suspensions exhibit viscoplastic behavior analogous to granular media.
- Established a relationship between friction coefficient, volume fraction, and the viscous number.
- Showed compatibility of results with classical empirical suspension models.
Conclusions:
- Dense suspensions and granular media can be described by a common frictional rheology framework.
- The dimensionless viscous number (I(v)) effectively characterizes dense suspension rheology.
- Provided clear constitutive laws applicable near the jamming transition.
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