Brownian dynamics simulations with spin Brownian motion on the negative magneto-rheological effect of a rod-like hematite particle suspension

We have investigated the behaviour of a suspension of magnetic rod-like hematite particles in a simple shear flow with the addition of an applied magnetic field. A significant feature of the present hematite particle suspension is the fact that the magnetic moment of the hematite particle lies normal to the particle-axis direction. From simulations, we have attempted to clarify the dependence of the negative magneto-rheological effect on the particle aggregation and orientational distribution of particles. The present Brownian dynamics method has a significant advantage in that it takes into account the spin rotational Brownian motion about the particle axis in addition to the ordinary translational and rotational Brownian motion. The net viscosity is decomposed into three components and discussed at a deeper level and in detail: these three viscosity components arise from (1) the torque due to the magnetic particle–field interaction, (2) the torque and (3) the force due to the interaction between particles. It is found that a slight change in the orientational distribution has a significant influence on the negative magneto-rheological effect. In a relatively dense suspension, the viscosity components arising from an applied magnetic field and the interaction between particles come to change rapidly for a certain strength of the magnetic particle–particle interaction, which is due to the onset of the formation of raft-like clusters.