Rheological and deformation behavior of natural smart suspensions exhibiting shear thickening properties

Abstract

Shear thickening fluid (STF) is a very interesting and promising material in several application fields where a different mechanical is demanded based on loading rates, like body armor and vibration insulators. Cork is a natural cellular material by excellence, filled with well-known beneficial effects in terms of insulation and also interesting crashworthiness properties. In this work, cork grains of very small size (0.5–1.0 mm) are added to two different shear thickening suspensions, one of them a fully natural water and cornstarch, and the other based on fumed silica and polyethylene glycol. The rheology of these eco-friendly suspensions was investigated and the influences of including cork grains were discussed. In addition, microscopic analyses were carried out to observe the deformations at each component during the shear thickening phenomenon. Cork grains reduce the load-carrying capacity in the suspensions due to the deformable characteristics of cork. For this reason, shear thickening properties are suppressed in the mixtures. Despite this, it is possible to state that viscosity increase in the mixtures leads to strong particle contacts, and thereby resulting in particle deformations in the main constituent powder as well as in the cork additives due to their softer structures.