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Updated: May 5, 2026

Challenges in Rheological Characterization of Highly Concentrated Suspensions — A Case Study for Screen-printing Silver Pastes
Published on: April 10, 2017
Discontinuous shear thickening of frictional hard-sphere suspensions
Ryohei Seto1, Romain Mari, Jeffrey F Morris
1Benjamin Levich Institute, City College of New York, New York, New York 10031, USA.
Abstract:
Discontinuous shear thickening (DST) observed in many dense athermal suspensions has proven difficult to understand and to reproduce by numerical simulation. By introducing a numerical scheme including both relevant hydrodynamic interactions and granularlike contacts, we show that contact friction is essential for having DST. Above a critical volume fraction, we observe the existence of two states: a low viscosity, contactless (hence, frictionless) state, and a high viscosity frictional shear jammed state. These two states are separated by a critical shear stress, associated with a critical shear rate where DST occurs. The shear jammed state is reminiscent of the jamming phase of granular matter. Continuous shear thickening is seen as a lower volume fraction vestige of the jamming transition.
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