Description: Inhomogeneous suspensions of rigid rods in flow

This title appears in the Scientific Report : 2003

Inhomogeneous suspensions of rigid rods in flow

An expression for the divergence of the stress tensor is derived for inhomogeneous suspensions of very long and thin, rigid rods. The stress tensor is expressed in terms of the suspension flow velocity and the probability density function for the position and orientation of a rod. The expression for...

Personal Name(s):	Dhont, J. K. G.
	Briels, W. J.
Contributing Institute:	Weiche Materie; IFF-WM
Published in:	The @journal of chemical physics, 118 (2003) S. 1466 - 1478
Imprint:	Melville, NY American Institute of Physics 2003
Physical Description:	1466 - 1478
DOI:	10.1063/1.1528912
Document Type:	Journal Article
Research Program:	Kondensierte Materie
Series Title:	Journal of Chemical Physics 118
Subject (ZB):	J
Link:	Get full text OpenAccess
	Publikationsportal JuSER

Please use the identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1528912 in citations.
Please use the identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/1603 in citations.

An expression for the divergence of the stress tensor is derived for inhomogeneous suspensions of very long and thin, rigid rods. The stress tensor is expressed in terms of the suspension flow velocity and the probability density function for the position and orientation of a rod. The expression for the stress tensor includes stresses arising from possibly very large spatial gradients in the shear rate, concentration, and orientational order parameter. The resulting Navier-Stokes equation couples to the equation of motion for the probability density function of the position and orientation of a rod. The equation of motion for this probability density function is derived from the N-particle Smoluchowski equation, including contributions from inhomogeneities. It is argued that for very long and thin rods, hydrodynamic interactions are of minor importance, and are therefore neglected, both in the expression for the stress tensor and in the equation of motion for the above-mentioned probability density function. The thus obtained complete set of equations of motion can be applied to describe phenomena where possibly very large spatial gradients occur, such as phase coexistence under shear flow conditions, including shear-banding, and phase separation kinetics. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.