PARTICLE ORIENTATIONAL PROPERTIES AND VISCOSITY OF A DENSE COLLOIDAL DISPERSION COMPOSED OF FERROMAGNETIC SPHEROCYLINDER PARTICLES (ANALYSIS BY MEANS OF MEAN FIELD APPROXIMATION FOR A SIMPLE SHEAR FLOW)

摘要

We have theoretically investigated the particle orientational distribution and viscosity of a dense colloidal dispersion composed of ferromagnetic spherocylinder particles under circumstances of an applied magnetic field. The mean field approximation has been applied to take into account the magnetic interactions of the particle of interest with the other ones which belong to the neighboring clusters, besides its own cluster. The basic equation of the orientational distribution function, which is an integro-differential equation, has approximately been solved by Galerkin's method and the method of successive approximation. Even when the magnetic interaction between particles is of the order of the thermal energy, the effect of particle-particle interactions on the orientational distribution comes to appear more significantly with increasing the volumetric fraction of particles. This effect comes to appear more significantly when the influence of the applied magnetic field is not relatively so strong compared with magnetic particle-particle interactions.