title: Reversible shear thickening at low shear rates of electrorheological fluids under electric fields.
abstract: By shearing electrorheological (ER) fluids between two concentric cylinders, we show a reversible shear thickening of ER fluids above a low critical shear rate (<1 s(-1)) and a high critical electric field strength (>100 V/mm), which can be characterized by a critical apparent viscosity. Shear thickening and electrostatic particle interaction-induced interparticle friction forces are considered to play an important role in the origin of lateral shear resistance of ER fluids, while the applied electric field controls the extent of shear thickening. The electric-field-controlled reversible shear thickening has implications for high-performance electrorheological-magnetorheological fluid design, clutch fluids with high friction forces triggered by applying a local electric field, other field-responsive materials, and intelligent systems.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Department of Precision Instruments, Tsinghua University, Beijing, People's Republic of China. tianyu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Minliang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jile
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Noshir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pesika
authors.forename: Hongbo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Israelachvili
authors.forename: Yonggang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Shizhu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wen