ArticleScience advances2020
Tunable solidification of cornstarch under impact: How to make someone walking on cornstarch sink.
Article in Science advances, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- A Shear Thickening Colloidal Suspension Functioning via Progressive Impact Jamming with Persistent Lubrication Layer.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Particle-Filled Emulsion Drops Show Flow-Induced Partial Coalescence, but Only Transiently.Industrial & engineering chemistry research · 2025Article
- Fracture and relaxation in dense cornstarch suspensions.PNAS nexus · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hundreds of YouTube videos show people running on cornstarch suspensions demonstrating that dense shear thickening suspensions solidify under impact. Such processes are mimicked by impacting and pulling out a plate from the surface of a thickening cornstarch suspension. Here, using both experiments and simulations, we show that applying fast oscillatory shear transverse to the primary impact or extension directions tunes the degree of solidification. The forces acting on the impacting surface are modified by varying the dimensionless ratio of the orthogonal shear to the compression and extension flow rate. Simulations show varying this parameter changes the number of particle contacts governing solidification. To demonstrate this strategy in an untethered context, we show the sinking speed of a cylinder dropped onto the suspension varies markedly by changing this dimensionless ratio. These results suggest applying orthogonal shear while people are running on cornstarch would de-solidify the suspension and cause them to sink.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.