Polishing operation of a steel bar in a shear thickening fluid medium

Shear thickening fluid (STF) has been utilized in several engineering applications due to its increasing viscosity under loading. Although the principal applications are protective structures and vibration attenuation systems, STF was adapted to a manufacturing process in this study. Combining an STF with abrasive particles, we fabricated a polishing suspension in which the STF provides a tough matrix for the abrasive particles. A steel bar was investigated in the polishing tests at two different shear rates which are adjusted to yield a low point and a peak point in the suspension viscosity. According to the results, the process at low viscosity is insufficient to realize the material removal from the specimen surface however, at peak viscosity, the process yields beneficial mechanism for improving the specimen surface finish.