Rigidity transition in polydisperse shear-thickening suspensions

Abstract

Shear thickening suspensions of non-Brownian polydisperse particles are simulated in 2D using a discrete element method based algorithm (LF-DEM) at high packing fractions ($\phi$) and large non-dimensional stresses ($\sigma$). Rigidity analysis of the stress induced particle clusters is carried out using \textit{pebble game} algorithm for polydisperse suspensions and compared with the statistically equivalent bidisperse systems. A critical value of the packing fraction, $\phi_c$, close to the shear jamming transition, $\phi_J^{\mu}$, ($\phi_c<\phi_J^{\mu}$) is obtained where rigid particle clusters begin to grow sharply. The growth is found to be characterized by a critical transition of an order parameter ($f_\text{rig}$), defined by the fraction of particles in rigid clusters which scales as, $f_\text{rig}\sim (\phi-\phi_c)^{\beta}$ for $\phi>\phi_c$, and by the susceptibility scaling, $\chi_\text{rig}\sim|\phi-\phi_c |^{-\gamma}$, with exponents having values consistent with the critical exponents in 2D percolation transition. The variations of $f_\text{rig}$ and $\chi_\text{rig}$ in polydisperse suspensions are found to be identical to that of the statistically equivalent bidisperse suspensions. Finite size scaling analysis shows a divergence of correlation length near $\phi_{c_\infty}$ following critical exponent $\nu\approx 1.33$, in agreement with the 2D percolation theory. Furthermore, $\phi_c$ and $\phi_J^{\mu}$ are found to vary non-monotonically with polydispersity index and depend on the particle stiffness.