Theory for the rheology of dense non-Brownian suspensions: divergence of viscosities and μ-J rheology

A systematic microscopic theory for the rheology of dense non-Brownian suspensions characterized by the volume fraction $\varphi$ is developed. The theory successfully derives the critical behavior in the vicinity of the jamming point (volume fraction $\varphi_{J}$), for both the pressure $P$ and the shear stress $\sigma_{xy}$, i.e. $P \sim \sigma_{xy} \sim \dot\gamma \eta_0 \delta\varphi^{-2}$, where $\dot\gamma$ is the shear rate, $\eta_0$ is the shear viscosity of the solvent, and $\delta\varphi = \varphi_J - \varphi > 0$ is the distance from the jamming point. It also successfully describes the behavior of the stress ratio $\mu = \sigma_{xy}/P$ with respect to the viscous number $J=\dot\gamma\eta_{0}/P$.