【Selected for Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 2017 Highlights】 Modeling shear-induced particle ordering and deformation in a dense soft particle suspension
Citation : “ Chih-Tang Liao, Yi-Fan Wu, Wei Chien, Jung-Ren Huang*, and Yeng-Long Chen*, J. Phys: Condens. Matter, 29, 435101”
This simulation work provides useful insights into the relationship between particle microstructure and suspension rheology of concentrated deformable particle suspensions. We studied shear-induced particle ordering and deformation and the corresponding rheological behavior for dense soft particle suspensions confined in a narrow gap under steady external shear. We showed that advanced computational modeling techniques are able to capture experimentally observed shear-induced transition from amorphous liquid to hexagonally arrayed patterns. Correspondingly, the suspension viscosity decreases as the particles become ordered. We also predict that long wavelength particle slithering motion emerges for sufficiently dense suspensions, likely due to particle zigzag movements.
Journal Links: http://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0953-8984/page/Highlights-2017