The rheology of shear thickening fluids with various ceramic particle additives

• Additives in Shear Thickening Fluids (STFs) disrupt the thickening behavior of the suspension.
• Critical shear rate of the STFs is retarded by the effect of additive particles.
• Additive particles enhance the viscosity profile of the STFs.
• Thickening period of the STFs is extended by the effect of additive particles.
• Additive particles reduce the thickening ratio of the STFs.

In this paper, shear thickening fluids (STFs) and three different types of additive particles such as silicon carbide, aluminum oxide and boron carbide are presented. STFs were fabricated based on nanosize fumed silica suspended in a liquid medium, polyethylene glycol at a constant concentration of 20 wt%, and then varying amounts of different types of particle additives were added. Their rheological properties under various temperatures were tested using a rheometer, and the effects of silica loading on the rheology of pure STF were investigated. The suspensions exhibited different systematic variations with respect to the varied parameters.

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