Flow of an electrorheological fluid between eccentric rotating cylinders

Electrorheological fluids have numerous potential applications in vibration dampers, brakes, valves, clutches, exercise equipment, etc. The flows in such applications are complex three-dimensional flows. Most models that have been developed to describe the flows of electrorheological fluids are one-dimensional models. Here, we discuss the behavior of two fully three-dimensional models for electrorheological fluids. The models are such that they reduce, in the case of simple shear flows with the intensity of the electric field perpendicular to the streamlines, to the same constitutive relation, but they would not be identical in more complicated three-dimensional settings. In order to show the difference between the two models, we study the flow of these fluids between eccentrically placed rotating cylinders kept at different potentials, in the setting that corresponds to technologically relevant problem of flow of electrorheological fluid in journal bearing. Even though the two models have quite a different constitutive structure, due to the assumed forms for the velocity and pressure fields, the models lead to the same velocity field but to different pressure fields. This finding illustrates the need for considering the flows of fluids described by three-dimensional constitutive models in complex geometries, and not restricting ourselves to flows of fluids described by one-dimensional models or simple shear flows of fluids characterized by three-dimensional models.