This thesis approaches impact resistance in dense suspensions from a new perspective. The most well-known example of dense suspensions, a mixture of cornstarch and water, provides enough impact resistance to allow a person to run across its surface. In the past, this phenomenon had been linked to "shear thickening" under a steady shear state attributed to hydrodynamic interactions or granular dilation. However, neither explanation accounted for the stress scales required for a person to run on the surface. Through this research, it was discovered that the impact resistance is due to local compression of the particle matrix. This compression forces the suspension across the jamming transition and precipitates a rapidly growing solid mass. This growing solid, as a result, absorbs the impact energy. This is the first observation of such jamming front, linking nonlinear suspension dynamics in a new way to the jamming phase transition known from dry granular materials.

This thesis demonstrates the first use of high-speed ultrasound imaging to non-invasively probe how the interior of a dense suspension responds to impact. Suspensions of small solid particles in a simple liquid can generate a rich set of dynamic phenomena that are of fundamental scientific interest because they do not conform to the typical behavior expected of either solids or liquids. Most remarkable is the highly counter-intuitive ability of concentrated suspensions to strongly thicken and even solidify when sheared or impacted. The understanding of the mechanism driving this solidification is, however, still limited, especially for the important transient stage while the response develops as a function of time. In this thesis, high-speed ultrasound imaging is introduced to track, for the first time, the transition from the flowing to the solidified state and directly observe the shock-like shear fronts that accompany this transition. A model is developed that agrees quantitatively with the experimental measurements. The combination of imaging techniques, experimental design, and modeling in this thesis represents a major breakthrough for the understanding of the dynamic response of dense suspensions, with important implications for a wide range of applications ranging from the handling of slurries to additive manufacturing.

Shear Thickening Fluid: Theory and Applications provides a complete reference on shear thickening fluid (STF) and STF applications for engineers, researchers, and scientists. STF rheology is discussed in terms of several factors, including suspension medium, particle size, particle shape, and environmental conditions. Single-phase STF is discussed, and the novel concept of multi-phase STF is examined by considering various fillers in this smart fluid. Prominent applications of STF are categorized as multi-functional systems, adaptive damping devices, surface finishing operations, and protective structures, and the applications are described by discussing the smart behavior of STF.

These proceedings collect the papers presented at the 30th International Symposium on Shock Waves (ISSW30), which was held in Tel-Aviv Israel from July 19 to July 24, 2015. The Symposium was organized by Ortra Ltd. The ISSW30 focused on the state of knowledge of the following areas: Nozzle Flow, Supersonic and Hypersonic Flows with Shocks, Supersonic Jets, Chemical Kinetics, Chemical Reacting Flows, Detonation, Combustion, Ignition, Shock Wave Reflection and Interaction, Shock Wave Interaction with Obstacles, Shock Wave Interaction with Porous Media, Shock Wave Interaction with Granular Media, Shock Wave Interaction with Dusty Media, Plasma, Magnetohyrdrodynamics, Re-entry to Earth Atmosphere, Shock Waves in Rarefied Gases, Shock Waves in Condensed Matter (Solids and Liquids), Shock Waves in Dense Gases, Shock Wave Focusing, Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability, Shock Boundary Layer Interaction, Multiphase Flow, Blast Waves, Facilities, Flow Visualization, and Numerical Methods. The two volumes serve as a reference for the participants of the ISSW30 and anyone interested in these fields.

This book primarily focuses on methodologies to enable marine structures to resist high velocity impact loadings. It is based on invited talks presented at the recent India–USA workshop on “Recent Advances in Blast Mitigation Strategies in Civil and Marine Composite Structures” The book comprises content from top researchers from India and the USA and covers various aspects of the topic, including modeling and simulation, design aspects, experimentation and various challenges. These failure modes significantly reduce the structural integrity of the marine structures unless they are designed to resist such harsh loadings. Understanding the mechanics of these structures under harsh loadings is still an open area of research, and the behavior of these structures is not fully understood. The book highlights efforts to reduce the effects of blast loadings on marine composite structures. Intended for researchers/scientists and practicing engineers, the book focuses not only the design and analysis challenges of marine composite structures under such harsh loading conditions, but also provides new design guidelines.