Discontinuous shear thickening of frictional hard-sphere suspensions

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 i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 111; no. 21; p. 218301
Main Authors Seto, Ryohei, Mari, Romain, Morris, Jeffrey F, Denn, Morton M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 18.11.2013
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/physrevlett.111.218301