From yielding to shear jamming in a cohesive frictional suspension

TL;DR

This paper uses simulations to explore how dense, cohesive, frictional suspensions transition from yielding to shear jamming, developing a model that captures their complex rheological behavior across different stress regimes.

Contribution

It introduces a constitutive model that unifies yielding, shear thinning, and shear thickening behaviors in cohesive frictional suspensions, validated by simulation data.

Findings

Identification of a stress gap between yielding and shear jamming

Development of a model capturing multiple rheological regimes

Simulation results agree with the proposed constitutive model

Abstract

Simulations are used to study the steady shear rheology of dense suspensions of frictional particles exhibiting discontinuous shear thickening and shear jamming, in which finite-range cohesive interactions result in a yield stress. We develop a constitutive model that combines yielding behavior and shear thinning at low stress with the frictional shear thickening at high stresses, in good agreement with the simulation results. This work shows that there is a distinct difference between solids below the yield stress and in the shear-jammed state, as the two occur at widely separated stress levels, separated by a region of stress in which the material is flowable.