Einstein Equation Effective Viscosity

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Einstein Equation Effective Viscosity

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In his PhD thesis, Einstein derived an explicit first-order expansion for the effective viscosity of a Stokes fluid with a suspension of small rigid particles at low density. His formal derivation relied on two implicit assumptions: (i) there is a scale separation between the size of the particles and the observation scale; and (ii) at first order, dilute particles do not interact with one another. In mathematical terms, the first assumption amounts to the validity of a homogenization result defining the effective viscosity tensor, which is now well understood. Next, the second assumption allowed Einstein to approximate this effective viscosity at low density by considering particles as being isolated. The rigorous justification is, in fact, quite subtle as the effective viscosity is a nonlinear nonlocal function of the ensemble of particles and as hydrodynamic interactions have borderline integrability.

Eq. 1

µ_eff = µ_o ( 1 + ( 5 ø / 2 )

Where:

ø = Porosity (volume fraction of the spheres)
µ_o = Viscosity of Suspending Medium (g/cm s)
µ_eff = Effective Viscosity (g/cm s)

Source:

Bird, R.B., Stewart, W.E. and Lightfoot, E.N. (2002). Transport Phenomena (Second Ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Chapter: 2, Page: 32.