Rheology of a dilute suspension of axisymmetric Brownian particles

Explicit results are presented for the complete rheological properties of dilute suspensions of rigid, axisymmetric Brownian particles possessing fore-aft symmetry, when suspended in a Newtonian liquid subjected to a general three-dimensional shearing flow, either steady or unsteady. It is demonstrated that these rheological properties can be expressed in terms of five fundamental material constants (exclusive of the solvent viscosity), which depend only upon the sizes and shapes of the suspended particles. Expressions are presented for these scalar constants for a number of solids of revolution, including spheroids, dumbbells of arbitrary aspect ratio and long slender bodies. These are employed to calculate rheological properties for a variety of different shear flows, including uniaxial and biaxial extensional flows, simple shear flows, and general two-dimensional shear flows. It is demonstrated that the rheological properties appropriate to a general two-dimensional shear flow can be deduced immediately from those for a simple shear flow. This observation greatly extends the utility of much of the prior Couette flow literature, especially the extensive numerical calculations of Scheraga et al. (1951, 1955).The commonality of many disparate results dispersed and diffused in earlier publications is emphasized, and presented from a unified hydrodynamic viewpoint.