Although liquids typically flow around intruding objects, a counterintuitive phenomenon occurs in dense suspensions of micrometre-sized particles: they become liquid-like when perturbed lightly, but ...harden when driven strongly. Rheological experiments have investigated how such thickening arises under shear, and linked it to hydrodynamic interactions or granular dilation. However, neither of these mechanisms alone can explain the ability of suspensions to generate very large, positive normal stresses under impact. To illustrate the phenomenon, such stresses can be large enough to allow a person to run across a suspension without sinking, and far exceed the upper limit observed under shear or extension. Here we show that these stresses originate from an impact-generated solidification front that transforms an initially compressible particle matrix into a rapidly growing jammed region, ultimately leading to extraordinary amounts of momentum absorption. Using high-speed videography, embedded force sensing and X-ray imaging, we capture the detailed dynamics of this process as it decelerates a metal rod hitting a suspension of cornflour (cornstarch) in water. We develop a model for the dynamic solidification and its effect on the surrounding suspension that reproduces the observed behaviour quantitatively. Our findings suggest that prior interpretations of the impact resistance as dominated by shear thickening need to be revisited.
A remarkable property of dense suspensions is that they can transform from liquid-like at rest to solid-like under sudden impact. Previous work showed that this impact-induced solidification involves ...rapidly moving jamming fronts; however, details of this process have remained unresolved. Here we use high-speed ultrasound imaging to probe non-invasively how the interior of a dense suspension responds to impact. Measuring the speed of sound we demonstrate that the solidification proceeds without a detectable increase in packing fraction, and imaging the evolving flow field we find that the shear intensity is maximized right at the jamming front. Taken together, this provides direct experimental evidence for jamming by shear, rather than densification, as driving the transformation to solid-like behaviour. On the basis of these findings we propose a new model to explain the anisotropy in the propagation speed of the fronts and delineate the onset conditions for dynamic shear jamming in suspensions.
Gripping and holding of objects are key tasks for robotic manipulators. The development of universal grippers able to pick up unfamiliar objects of widely varying shape and surface properties ...remains, however, challenging. Most current designs are based on the multifingered hand, but this approach introduces hardware and software complexities. These include large numbers of controllable joints, the need for force sensing if objects are to be handled securely without crushing them, and the computational overhead to decide how much stress each finger should apply and where. Here we demonstrate a completely different approach to a universal gripper. Individual fingers are replaced by a single mass of granular material that, when pressed onto a target object, flows around it and conforms to its shape. Upon application of a vacuum the granular material contracts and hardens quickly to pinch and hold the object without requiring sensory feedback. We find that volume changes of less than 0.5% suffice to grip objects reliably and hold them with forces exceeding many times their weight. We show that the operating principle is the ability of granular materials to transition between an unjammed, deformable state and a jammed state with solid-like rigidity. We delineate three separate mechanisms, friction, suction, and interlocking, that contribute to the gripping force. Using a simple model we relate each of them to the mechanical strength of the jammed state. This advance opens up new possibilities for the design of simple, yet highly adaptive systems that excel at fast gripping of complex objects.
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