A rheological signature of frictional interactions in shear thickening suspensions

Published

May 5, 2016

Author(s)

John R. Royer, Daniel L. Blair, Steven D Hudson

Abstract

Understanding shear thickening presents a significant challenge in colloidal physics. As the applied shear pushes particles into close contact, the macroscopic rheology is increasingly controlled by the microscopic details of short ranged particle interactions. We elucidate the relative contributions from hydrodynamic lubrication and frictional contact forces to colloidal shear thickening by measuring both the viscosity $\eta$ and first normal stress difference $N_1$ in suspensions of silica spheres over a wide range of volume fractions. The first normal stress difference reveals a transition not apparent in the viscosity alone, from $N_1 0$ at larger values of $\phi$. While the $N_1 0$ behavior (dilation) is instead a characteristic of frictional `granular' suspensions. Fitting our viscosity profiles $\eta(\sigma, \phi)$ to a model for friction-driven shear thickening, we capture the shear thickening for $\phi \geq 0.52$ but must adjust the adjust the maximum fraction of frictional contacts to fit at lower volume fractions. Our results bring together two contrasting theories for shear thickening; they show that friction drives shear thickening in concentrated colloidal suspensions, but also highlight the need to include hydrodynamic effects to fully describe the rheology at moderate concentrations.

Citation

Physical Review Letters

Volume

116

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.188301

Keywords

shear thickening, colloids, fluid suspensions, rheology, friction between colloidal particles

Citation

Royer, J. , Blair, D. and , S. (2016), A rheological signature of frictional interactions in shear thickening suspensions, Physical Review Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.188301 (Accessed October 13, 2025)