Rheology of electrorheological fluids

Journal Article · Sun Mar 08 23:00:00 EST 1992 · Physical Review Letters; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.68.1519· OSTI ID:7207112

Halsey, T C ^[1]; Martin, J E; Adolf, D ^[2]

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1. The James Franck Institute and Department of Physics, The University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637 (United States)
2. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 (United States)

We present experimental and theoretical results on the shear thinning of electrorheological fluids. Rheological measurements on a model fluid consisting of monodisperse silica spheres immersed in a dielectric liquid show a power-law dependence {mu}{proportional to}{dot {gamma}}{sup {minus}{Delta}} of the apparent viscosity {mu} on the strain rate {dot {gamma}}, with {Delta} in the range {Delta}=0.68--0.93. We present a theoretical treatment of steady-state cluster formation in applied electric and shear fields, which correctly predicts the observed power-law shear thinning albeit with an exponent {Delta}=2/3. We observe no true yield stress in this material.

• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 7207112
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review Letters; (United States) Vol. 68:10; ISSN PRLTA; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360603* -- Materials-- Properties
661000 -- General Physics-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AGGLOMERATION
BROWNIAN MOVEMENT
CHALCOGENIDES
DATA
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
DISPERSIONS
DROPLETS
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTROHYDRODYNAMICS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUID MECHANICS
FLUIDS
HYDRODYNAMICS
INFORMATION
MATERIALS
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MECHANICS
NUMERICAL DATA
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PARTICLES
RHEOLOGY
SHEAR
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SILICON OXIDES
SPHERES
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
STRAINS
THEORETICAL DATA
VISCOSITY
YIELD STRENGTH