On the bulk viscosity of suspensions

Abstract

The bulk viscosity of a suspension relates the deviation of the trace of the macroscopic or averaged stress from its equilibrium value to the average rate of expansion. For a suspension the equilibrium macroscopic stress is the sum of the fluid pressure and the osmotic pressure of the suspended particles. An average rate of expansion drives the suspension microstructure out of equilibrium and is resisted by the thermal motion of the particles. Expressions are given to compute the bulk viscosity for all concentrations and all expansion rates and shown to be completely analogous to the well-known formulae for the deviatoric macroscopic stress, which are used, for example, to compute the shear viscosity. The effect of rigid spherical particles on the bulk viscosity is determined to second order in volume fraction and to leading order in the Péclet number, which is defined as the expansion rate made dimensionless with the Brownian time scale. A repulsive hard-sphere-like interparticle force reduces the hydrodynamic interactions between particles and decreases the bulk viscosity.