Ultrasonic Attenuation and Speed of Sound of Cornstarch Suspensions

Abstract

The goal of this study is to contribute to the physics underlying the material properties of suspensions that exhibit shear thickening through the ultrasonic characterization of suspensions of cornstarch in a density-matched solution. Ultrasonic measurements at frequencies in the range of 4 to 8 MHz of the speed of sound and the frequency-dependent attenuation properties are reported for concentrations of cornstarch in a density-matched aqueous (cesium chloride brine) suspension, ranging up to 40% cornstarch. The speed of sound is found to range from 1483 +/- 10 m/s in pure brine to 1765 +/- 9 m/s in the 40% cornstarch suspension. The bulk modulus of a granule of cornstarch is inferred to be (1.2 +/- 0.1) X 10^{10} Pa. The attenuation coefficient at 5 MHz increases from essentially zero in brine to 12.0 +/- 1.2 dB/cm at 40% cornstarch.

arXiv comment5 pp., 3 fig

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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Shear thickening in concentrated suspensions: phenomenology, mechanisms, and relations to jamming
• High-speed ultrasound imaging in dense suspensions reveals impact-activated solidification due to dynamic shear jamming
• Universal Scaling of Polygonal Desiccation Crack Patterns
• Experimental investigations on the nonequilibrium dynamics of pattern formation in fluid and granular systems