1306.5985 (Ryohei Seto et al.)

Discontinuous shear thickening of frictional hard-sphere suspensions    [PDF]

Ryohei Seto, Romain Mari, Jeffrey F. Morris, Morton M. Denn

Discontinuous Shear Thickening (DST) observed in many dense athermal suspensions has proven difficult to understand and to reproduce numerically. By introducing a numerical scheme including both relevant hydrodynamic interactions and granular-like 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.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.5985