Using Orthogonal Shear and Acoustic Excitation to Tune Thickening and Jamming in Suspensions

Itai Cohen,

Cornell University, Ithaca, USA

Abstract

Each year, millions of viewers head to YouTube to watch people walk on water. Of course, these people are not actually walking on water: as stress is applied to a mixture of cornstarch and water, the cornstarch particles come close enough to form force chains that are capable of supporting the weight of a person. While these principles help create popular videos, they can be problematic when it comes to efficient processing of industrial suspensions. In this talk I will discuss how thickening problems can be overcome by oscillating the shearing or impacting plate of a rheometer to eliminate shear and impact-driven jamming.

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