Continual mechanics of monodisperse suspensions. On properties of spherical dipole suspensions in an external field (Q1218773)

The author considers a suspension of solid spheres having a dipole moment. This may arise, for example, if the spheres are in a gravitational field and the center of gravity of a sphere does not lie at its geometric center or if they are magnetized or carry electric dipoles in an electromagnetic field. This effect provides the generalization of previous work [\textit{E. J. Hinch} and \textit{L. C. Lyle}, J. Fluid Mech. 56, 803--813 (1972; Zbl 0251.76062)]. Similar methods to those used there (based an averaging over a suitable volume and assuming flow at small Reynolds number, a random space distribution of suspended particles and the mean distance between particles much bigger than the particles themselves) produce the same equations of conservation of mass, momentum and angular momentum of the phases with the inclusion of one extra term in the last of these for the disperse phase. The resulting equations are suitable for application to simple flows, for example, Couette flow with constant concentration of suspension. The results indicate that in two respects the suspension of dipole particles in an external field are non-Newtonian, increasingly so as the concentration rises. In the first place, the effective viscosity coefficients depend on the rate of shear and, secondly, the proportionality of the mean stresses and rates of shear is changed. The results are asserted to hold for flows whose characteristic frequency is not too high and the relevance of this assumption to real situations is discussed.