Characterizing the surface texture of a dense suspension undergoing dynamic jamming

TL;DR

This study compares surface velocity and texture measurements in a dense suspension during shear jamming, revealing that surface features indicate the jammed region and principal strain directions.

Contribution

It introduces a method to quantify surface texture and orientation using Fourier analysis, linking surface features to the underlying strain and jamming front propagation.

Findings

Surface features correlate with the jammed region identified by PIV.

Surface textures are aligned with principal strain directions.

The method reveals surface information about the jamming process.

Abstract

Measurements of the surface velocity and surface texture of a freely propagating shear jamming front in a dense suspension are compared. The velocity fields are captured with particle image velocimetry (PIV), while the surface texture is captured in a separated experiment by observing a direct reflection on the suspension surface with high-speed cameras. A method for quantifying the surface features and their orientation is presented based on the fast Fourier transform of localised windows. The region that exhibits strong surface features corresponds to the the solid-like jammed region identified via the PIV measurements. Moreover, the surface features within the jammed region are predominantly oriented in the same direction as the eigenvectors of the strain tensor. Thus, from images of the free surface, our analysis is able to show that the surface texture contains information on the principle strain directions and the propagation of the jamming front.