| he rheological behavior of Brownian electrorheological (ER) fluids is studied as a model for flocculated colloidal dispersions. The ER fluid has the advantages that the interparticle potential energy can be varied by simply changing the applied field strength, and the microstructure consists of essentially linear chains of particles aligned with the field direction. Studies of the quiescent suspension structure find a dispersed region, an equilibrium flocculated region, and a kinetically flocculated region for low, moderate, and large attractive potential well depths, ;The model is tested for its general applicability by simulations studies with a sphero-symmetric attractive potential, and by using experimental data from other researchers.;A theory is proposed that makes use of the time scale of diffusion for aggregated particles out of their mutual potential well,... |
