Shear thickening in polymer stabilized colloidal suspensions

This paper adopts a previously developed activation model of shear thickening, published by the authors to sterically stabilized colloidal suspensions. When particles arranged along the compression axis of a sheared suspension, they may overcome the repulsive interaction and form hydroclusters associated with shear thickening. Taking advantage of the total interaction potential of polymeric brush coating and van der Waals attraction, the applicability of the activation model is shown within the validity range of a continuum theory. For the comparison with an extensive experimental investigation, where some parameters are not available, the onset of shear thickening can be predicted with realistic assumptions of the model parameters.