Effect of repulsive interactions on structure and rheology of sheared colloidal dispersions†
Abstract
A previously developed Smoluchowski theory for concentrated hard-sphere suspensions in shear flow is extended to study structure and a3/kbT is the ratio of hydrodynamic to Brownian forces and η is the fluid viscosity,
is the shear rate, a is the particle radius and kbT is the thermal energy. Examples of predicted microstructures and the equivalent simulated results for hard-sphere suspensions at ϕ = 0.40 are also presented for comparison. The predicted pair distribution function is in good agreement with simulations before the onset of a shear-induced ordering transition in simulations of the soft colloids. The calculations of shear viscosity based on the predicted microstructure were also in general agreement with simulation results. The role of hydrodynamic interactions on flow-induced structures is discussed in the context of the proposed theory.
- This article is part of the themed collection: Bridging the gap between soft and hard colloids