Publication 19-CNA-005
Effects of Polydispersity on Structuring and Rheology in Flowing Suspensions
Eilis Rosenbaum
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA
and
National Energy Technology Laboratory
626 Cochrans Mill Road, P.O. Box 10940
Pittsburgh, PA 15236
Eilis.Rosenbaum@netl.doe.gov
Mehrdad Massoudi
Center for Nonlinear Analysis
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
and
National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)
U.S. Department of Energy
626 Cochrans Mill Road, P.O. Box 10940
Pittsburgh, PA 15236
massoudi@netl.doe.gov
Kaushik Dayal
Center for Nonlinear Analysis
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Kaushik.Dayal@cmu.edu
Abstract: The size and distribution of particles suspended within a fluid influence the rheology of the suspension, as well as strength and other mechanical properties if the fluid eventually solidifies.
An important motivating example of current interest is foamed cements used for carbon storage and oil and gas wellbore completion. In these applications, it is desired that the suspended particles maintain dispersion during flow and do not coalesce or cluster. This paper compares the role of mono- against poly- dispersity in the particle clustering process. The propensity of hard spherical particles in a suspension to transition from a random configuration to an ordered
configuration, or to form localized structures of particles, due to flow is investigated by comparing simulations of monodisperse and polydisperse auspensions using Stokesian Dynamics. The calculations examine the role of the polydispersity on particle rearrangements and structuring of particles due to flow, and the effects of the particle size distribution on the suspension viscosity. A key finding of this work is that a small level of polydispersity in the particle sizes helps to reduce localized structuring of the particles in the suspension. A suspension of monodisperse hard spheres forms structures at a particle volume fraction of approximately 47% under
shear but a 47% volume fraction of polydisperse particles in suspension does not form these structures.
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