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# Conching chocolate: A prototypical transition from frictionally jammed solid to flowable suspension with maximal solid content

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### Abstract

The mixing of a powder of 10-50{\mu}m primary particles into a liquid to form a dispersion with the highest possible solid content is a common industrial operation. Building on recent advances in the rheology of such 'granular dispersions', we study a paradigmatic example of such powder incorporation: the conching of chocolate, in which a homogeneous, flowing suspension is prepared from an inhomogeneous mixture of particulates, triglyceride oil and dispersants. Studying the rheology of a simplified formulation, we find that the input of mechanical energy and staged addition of surfactants combine to effect a considerable shift in the jamming volume fraction of the system, thus increasing the maximum flowable solid content. We discuss the possible microscopic origins of this shift, and suggest that chocolate conching exemplifies a ubiquitous class of powder-liquid mixing.

### Most cited references19

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### A Mechanism for Non-Newtonian Flow in Suspensions of Rigid Spheres

(1959)
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### Jamming of frictional spheres and random loose packing

(2011)
The role of friction coefficient, $$\mu$$, on the jamming properties of disordered, particle packings is studied using computer simulations. Compressed, soft-sphere packings are brought towards the jamming transition - the point where a packing loses mechanical stability - by decreasing the packing fraction. The values of the packing fraction at the jamming transition, $$\phi^{\mu}_{c}$$, gradually decrease from the random close packing point for zero friction, to a value coincident with random loose packing as the friction coefficient is increased over several orders of magnitude. This is accompanied by a decrease in the coordination number at the jamming transition, $$z^{\mu}_{c}$$, which varies from approximately six to four with increasing friction. Universal power law scaling is observed in the pressure and coordination number as a function of distance from the generalised, friction-dependent jamming point. Various power laws are also reported between the $$\phi^{\mu}_{\rm c}$$, $$z^{\mu}_{\rm c}$$, and $$\mu$$. Dependence on preparation history of the packings is also investigated.
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### Shear thickening in concentrated suspensions: phenomenology, mechanisms, and relations to jamming

(2013)
Shear thickening is a type of non-Newtonian behavior in which the stress required to shear a fluid increases faster than linearly with shear rate. Many concentrated suspensions of particles exhibit an especially dramatic version, known as Discontinuous Shear Thickening (DST), in which the stress suddenly jumps with increasing shear rate and produces solid-like behavior. The best known example of such counter-intuitive response to applied stresses occurs in mixtures of cornstarch in water. Over the last several years, this shear-induced solid-like behavior together with a variety of other unusual fluid phenomena has generated considerable interest in the physics of densely packed suspensions. In this review, we discuss the common physical properties of systems exhibiting shear thickening, and different mechanisms and models proposed to describe it. We then suggest how these mechanisms may be related and generalized, and propose a general phase diagram for shear thickening systems. We also discuss how recent work has related the physics of shear thickening to that of granular materials and jammed systems. Since DST is described by models that require only simple generic interactions between particles, we outline the broader context of other concentrated many-particle systems such as foams and emulsions, and explain why DST is restricted to the parameter regime of hard-particle suspensions. Finally, we discuss some of the outstanding problems and emerging opportunities.
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### Author and article information

###### Journal
01 February 2019
###### Article
1902.00471