Modelling particle migration in rod suspensions

Abstract

Suspensions involving nanoparticles are widely used in the develop- ment of engineered materials. These particles allow changing both the properties and the behavior of these materials. Therefore, having a detailed knowledge of the microstructure and its evolution is highly important to produce molded parts; that is why a lot of progress has been made in last years. Jeffery was the first to describe the motion in dilute suspensions of ellipsoidal particles immersed in a Newtonian fluid. However, recent experimental studies suggest that in concentrated suspensions, where fiber-fiber interactions occur, other models should be used. In cur- rent models, a Brownian term, which is based in phenomenological observations, is introduced to describe this behaviour. In this work some of the current predicting models will be analysed and compared and the effects of interactions modelled from a Brow- nian mechanism leading to an effective migration will be explored.