The rheological properties of shear thickening fluid reinforced with SiC nanowires

The rheological properties of shear thickening fluid (STF) reinforced with SiC nanowires were investigated in this paper. Pure STF consists of 56vol% silica nano-particles and polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400) solvent was fabricated; and a specific amount of SiC nanowires were dispersed into this pure STF, and then the volume fraction of PEG400 was adjusted to maintain the volume fraction of solid phase in the STF at a constant of 56%. The results showed there was almost 30% increase in the initial and shear thickening viscosity of the STF reinforced with SiC nanowires compared to the pure STF. Combining with the hydrodynamic cluster theory, the effect of the mechanism of SiC nanowire on the viscosity of STF was discussed, and based on the experimental results, an analytical model of viscosity was used to describe the rheological properties of STF, which agreed with the experimental results.