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Metamaterials are composite structures whose extraordinary properties arise from a mesoscale organization of their constituents. Here, we introduce a different material class—viscosity metafluids. Specifically, we demonstrate that we can rapidly drive large viscosity oscillations in shear-thickened fluids using acoustic perturbations with kHz to MHz frequencies. Because the timescale for these oscillations can be orders of magnitude smaller than the timescales associated with the global material flow, we can construct metafluids whose resulting time-averaged viscosity is a composite of the thickened, high-viscosity and dethickened, low-viscosity states. We show that viscosity metafluids can be used to engineer a variety of unique properties including zero, infinite, and negative viscosities. The high degree of control over the resulting viscosity, the ease with which they can be accessed, and the variety of exotic properties achievable make viscosity metafluids attractive for uses in technologies ranging from coatings to cloaking to 3D printing. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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.