Rheological properties of magnetic fluids composed of clusters. 1st report. Analysis of simple shear flow in a strong magnetic field perpendicular to a shearing plane.

Abstract

An analysis of rheological properties of magnetic fluids is made for the case of a steady simple shear flow in a strong magnetic field perpendicular to the shearing plane. It is assumed that the particles in the magnetic fluid take a linear, and closely contact each other to make clusters. By applying Galerkin's method, nemerical calculation is made to obtain an approximate solution of the governing equation for the orientational distribution function of the cluster. The numerical results explain well the rheological properties of magnetic fluids.