Stochastic Aspects of Bridging Bonds of Induced Structure of Electro-Rheological Fluids in Shear Flow

The bridging of electrodes by clusters of polarizable elements occurs to be a dominant feature of the response of certain electrorheological fluid suspensions and liquid polymeric blends to the imposed electric field. The evolution of the bridging structure in deformation and flow is described as a stochastic process and identified with the macroscopic flow behavior. The effect of structure is introduced into the rheological equation providing its non-linear modification. The comparisons are presented showing how the proposed rheological equation describes rheological characteristics measured at steady shearing flow and start-up shearing flow.