Das

Scientists Discover Strange Property of Rice and Turn It Into a Smart Material
/via ScuTechDaily - doi to primary in article (all the way down)

#Rice #Science
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-discover-strange-property-of-rice-and-turn-it-into-a-smart-material/

Scientists Discover Strange Property of Rice and Turn It Into a Smart Material

A surprising property of rice has inspired the creation of a new class of engineered materials. Rice behaves in an unexpected way under pressure. When compressed quickly, it becomes weaker, but under slow pressure it stays strong. This insight is helping scientists develop a new material that could

SciTechDaily
Apr 8 at 12:26amWeb
Show threadAstronot5d ago
@SRDas disappointed in my fellow Rice University material scientists for not sorting this out.
Show threadDas5d ago
@astronot My thoughts exactly :)
Show threadExtra_Special_Carbon5d ago
@SRDas Isn’t shear thining something most materials do? I’m definitely missing something.
Show threadDas5d ago
@Extra_Special_Carbon The compression rate makes a difference to response is the new bit.
"When compressed quickly, it becomes weaker, but under slow pressure it stays strong"
Show threadExtra_Special_Carbon4d ago

@SRDas Oh I see, this isn’t about a viscoelastic fluid, it’s about grainular materials. For viscoelestic materials, this is normal behavior. I measure a lot of rheology in my work.

If I slowly push on shaving cream, it pushes back. If I hit it hard, it becomes fluid. Shaving cream recovers quickly. Ketchup does the same, but ketchup remains fluid for a little while after it’s disturbed, so it comes out of the bottle. Ooblek does the unusual thing of getting stiffer with increased stress.