Influence of the Size Distribution of Particles on the Viscous Property of an Electrorheological Fluid

The influence of the size distribution of particles on the viscous property of an electrorheological fluid has been investigated by the molecular dynamic simulation method. The shear stress of the fluid is found to decrease with the increase of the variance σ² of the Gaussian distribution of the particle size, and then reach a steady value when σ is larger than 0.5. This phenomenon is attributed to the influence of the particle size distribution on the dynamic structural evolution in the fluid as well as the strength of the different chain-like structures formed by the particles.