Shear-dependent viscosity in simple fluids

Computer simulation results are used to examine the shear-dependent viscosity of simple fluids. The prime purpose of the investigation was to examine the possible non-newtonian effects when the particles in a fluid interact through central forces. A range of spherical interactions was examined, including both potentials with a barrier and simple colloidal models, and in all cases the fluids were shear-thinning. The non-equilibrium radial distribution function for a soft potential is considerably more sensitive to shear rate than is that for the strongly repulsive model. Calculations of the hydrostatic pressure show that it increases with shear rate, demonstrating that the phenomena of shear thickening and shear dilatency — used interchangeably in the literature — are separate phenomena.