Rheology of dense particulate suspensions

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CBET - 1640589PI: Del Gado, EmanuelaThe rheology of dense particle suspensions is a strategic theme at the core of industrial technologies for cements and pastes, drilling and recovery, personal care and chemical products, slurry and powders. Dense suspensions may flow with relative ease under slow forcing, while fast forcing can cause an abrupt thickening and arrest of the flow with dramatic consequences for material processing and manufacturing. New findings from European and US researchers have recently challenged the accepted paradigm for these phenomena, and a first venue for the debate on these issues was offered by a small workshop held in Edinburgh in June 2015. With the intent of involving more US scientists, keeping the momentum going in this rapidly evolving field, this project will support a new workshop to be held in Washington DC. This is an opportune time to capitalize on the novel ideas and the community that started to emerge in the Edinburgh meeting, providing a unique opportunity to the US researchers to lead an in-depth discussion and analysis of the implications for technology. The project will support attendance by students and young faculty who will have a unique opportunity to participate in the latest developments in this important area of science and engineering.The workshop on "Rheology of Dense Particulate Suspensions" will be held on June 16 -17, 2016, at Georgetown University and will provide extended times for discussion and networking to researchers with diverse backgrounds. This project requests funds to support 6 early career scientists and 5 women scientists that have limited travel budget and could not otherwise attend the meeting. The research that will be presented and analysed during the workshop will have, at the core, the fundamental understanding of how the strongly non-linear response of DST phenomena may emerge from the simple components in colloidal and granular systems, in analogy with classical critical phenomena and in particular with jamming. Flow property transitions, much like classical phase behavior in material physics, have enormous practical relevance, as they determine the processing conditions for a material in engineering contexts. Unraveling the origin of discontinuous shear thickening (DST) phenomena, characterizing their precursors also with respect to specific flow conditions, is crucial to control particle flow, interactions and assembly for advanced manufacturing applications. Which is the new physics that underlies the large fluctuations in local properties (stresses, deformation rates...) detected prior the onset of DST? Within this context participants will discuss new theories, advanced computational approaches and novel experimental techniques that can be transformative.