Constitutive relations for the interaction force in multicomponent particulate flows

In the mechanics of multiphase (or multicomponent) mixtures, one of the outstanding issues is the formulation of constitutive relations for the interaction force. In this paper, we give a brief review of the various relations proposed for this interaction force. The review is tilted toward presenting the works of those who have used the mixture theory (or the theory of interacting continua) to derive or to propose a relationship for the interaction (or diffusive) force. We propose a constitutive relation which is general and frame-indifferent and thus suitable for use in many flow conditions. At the end, we provide an alternative approach for finding the drag force on a particle in a particulate mixture. This approach has been used in the non-Newtonian fluid mechanics to find the drag force on surfaces.