Überlegungen zur Scherviskosität von Suspensionen aufgrund einer Dimensionsanalyse

Dimensional analysis of the motion of solid particles suspended in a fluid phase shows that the macroscopic relative shear viscosity of suspensions generally depends not only on the volume concentration and particle shape but also on two Reynolds numbers and a dimensionless sedimentation number. These dimensionless numbers are formed using parameters characterizing the structure and motion of the suspension at the microscopic level. The analysis was based on the assumptions that the dispersed particles are rigid and sufficiently large that Brownian motion may be neglected, that the continuous fluid phase is Newtonian and that the interactions between particles and between particles and fluid phase are only hydrodynamic. The Reynolds numbers describe the influence of the inertial forces at the microscopic level, and the sedimentation number the influence of gravity. The dimensionless numbers can be neglected if their values are much smaller than one. For each of the dimensionless numbers both the shear rate and the particle size influence the shear viscosity. Thus sedimentation number is large for low shear rates, whereas the Reynolds numbers are large for high shear rates. The viscosity function for one suspension can be transformed into the viscosity function for another suspension with geometrically similar particles but of a different size. The scale-up rules are derived from the requirement that the relevant dimensionless numbers must be constant. The influence of non-hydrodynamic effects at the microscopic level on the shear viscosity can be detected by deviations from the derived scale-up rules.