Lateral stress measurements in dense suspensions

Abstract

The present study investigates the deviatoric response of dense particle suspensions consisting of silicon carbide suspended in ethylene glycol using piezoresistive stress gages as a means of experimentally measuring the dynamic strength of materials. The validity of the method is first shown in a pure liquid environment, recovering the hydrodynamic behavior of the liquid. The deviatoric response of the dense suspension is indicative of a shock-induced stiffening within the mixture, whereby the stress state is largely influenced by the suspended particles. A mesh-free numerical approach (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics) is used to investigate the shock-induced mesostructural deformation of the suspension. The measured deviatoric response of the suspensions is discussed in terms of the formation of inter-particle contact networks, force chains, which result from the shock-induced mesostructural changes in the suspensions. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.