Two-Step Discontinuous Shear Thickening of Dilute Inertial Suspensions Having Soft-Core Potential

TL;DR

This paper develops a kinetic theory for dilute inertial suspensions with soft-core particles, revealing a two-step discontinuous shear thickening behavior influenced by particle softness, supported by molecular dynamics simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework linking particle softness to shear thickening, validated by numerical simulations, which is novel in suspension rheology.

Findings

Two-step discontinuous shear thickening observed.

Theoretical predictions align with molecular dynamics results.

Softness of particles critically affects flow behavior.

Abstract

Kinetic theory for dilute inertial suspension having soft-core potential is theoretically investigated. From the analysis of the scattering process, the expression of the scattering angle is analytically obtained. We derive the flow curve between the viscosity and the shear rate, which shows two-step discontinuous shear thickening when we change the softness of the particles. The molecular dynamics simulation shows that our theoretical results are consistent with the numerical ones.