Numerical Simulation and Experimental Comparison of the Low Velocity Impact of Shear Thickening Fluid

Shear thickening fluid (STF) is a kind of heterogeneous suspension of nanometer or micrometer particles in a non-Newtonian fluid. The significant feature of STF is that it can change from liquid to solid-like under an impact load, and, it will return back to a liquid-like state upon the load's removed. In this paper, a low-speed impact test is carried out to investigate STF's impact properties. Then, the finite element method is used to model the STF's low-velocity impact process with the help of software LS-DYNA. The result proves that Shear thickening fluid has the excellent cushioning properties. By comparing the acceleration response of an impact rod from experiments with those from a finite element simulation, the approach proposed in this work is found to be reasonable.