Paper Number
DP20                         My Program 

Session
Dense Particulate Systems

Title
Universal scaling of shear thickening suspensions under acoustic perturbation

Presentation Date and Time
October 15, 2024 (Tuesday) 2:10

Track / Room
Track 3 / Waterloo 5

Authors (Click on name to view author profile)

1. Barth, Anna R. (Cornell University, Physics)
2. Singh, Navneet (Cornell University, Physics)
3. Ramaswamy, Meera (Princeton University)
4. Ong, Edward Y. (Cornell University, Applied Engineering and Physics)
5. Kakhandiki, Pranav (Cornell University)
6. Shetty, Abhishek (Anton Paar, Rheology)
7. Chakraborty, Bulbul (Brandeis University, Physics)
8. Sethna, James P. (Cornell University, Physics)
9. Cohen, Itai (Cornell University, Physics)

Author and Affiliation Lines (in printed abstract book)
Anna R. Barth¹, Navneet Singh¹, Meera Ramaswamy², Edward Y. Ong³, Pranav Kakhandiki¹, Abhishek Shetty⁴, Bulbul Chakraborty⁵, James P. Sethna¹ and Itai Cohen^1
1Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; ²Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; ³Applied Engineering and Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; ⁴Rheology, Anton Paar, Ashland, VA 23005; ⁵Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453

Speaker / Presenter 
Barth, Anna R.

Keywords
experimental methods; dense systems; non-Newtonian fluids; suspensions

Text of Abstract
Nearly all dense suspensions undergo dramatic and abrupt thickening transitions in their flow behavior when sheared at high stresses. Such transitions occur when suspended particles come into frictional contact with each other to form structures that resist the flow. These frictional contacts can be disrupted with acoustic perturbations, thereby lowering the suspension's viscosity. Acoustic perturbations offer a convenient way to control the suspension's shear thickening behavior in real time, as the suspension responds to the perturbation nearly instantaneously. Here, we fold these acoustic perturbations into a universal scaling framework for shear thickening, in which the viscosity is described by a crossover scaling function from the frictionless jamming point to a frictional shear jamming critical point. We test this theory on sheared suspensions with acoustic perturbations and find experimentally that across all shear stresses, volume fractions, and acoustic powers, the viscosity can be collapsed onto a single universal curve. Within this framework, a scaling parameter that is a function of stress, volume fraction and acoustic power determines the proximity of the system to the frictional shear jamming critical point and ultimately the viscosity. Our results demonstrate the broad applicability of the scaling framework, its utility for experimentally manipulating the system, and open the door to importing the vast theoretical machinery developed to understand equilibrium critical phenomena to elucidate fundamental physical aspects of the non-equilibrium shear thickening transition.