Microstructure of shear-thickening concentrated suspensions determined by flow-USANS |
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Authors: | Dennis P Kalman Norman J Wagner |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA; |
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Abstract: | Reversible shear thickening in colloidal suspensions is a consequence of the formation of hydroclusters due to the dominance
of short-ranged lubrication hydrodynamic interactions at relatively high shear rates. Here, we develop and demonstrate a new
method of flow-ultra small angle neutron scattering to probe the colloidal microstructure under steady flow conditions on
length scales suitable to characterize the formation of hydroclusters. Results are presented for a model near hard-sphere
colloidal suspension of 260 nm radius (10% polydisperse) sterically stabilized silica particles in poly(ethylene glycol) at
shear rates in the shear thinning and shear thickening regime for dilute, moderately concentrated, and concentrated (ordered)
suspensions. Hydrocluster formation is observed as correlated, broadly distributed density fluctuations in the suspension
with a characteristic length scale of a few particle diameters. An order–disorder transition is observed to be coincident
with shear thickening for the most concentrated sample, but the shear-thickened state shows hydrocluster formation. These
structural observations are correlated to the behavior of the shear viscosity and discussed within the framework of theory,
simulation, and prior experiments. |
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Keywords: | |
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