The squeezing flow of a model suspension fluid

The paper is concerned with the squeezing flow of a model suspension fluid. The numerical solution obtained by a time-dependent Boundary Element Method is compared to an asymptotic solution at large radius. It is found that the kinematics are Newtonian in character, and the fibres quickly align themselves radially. Consequently, the squeezing force is only weakly dependent on the initial orientations of the fibres and the device can be used for measuring the effective viscosity of the suspension. The effective viscosity found from the squeezing flow agrees surprisingly well with experimental data and numerical data derived from the falling sphere geometry at low volume fractions ( < 0.1).