2012-05-30
15:45 at HCI G 7

Colloidal dispersions in external flow fields

Joseph Brader

Universität Freiburg

Colloidal dispersions are commonly encountered in everyday life (e.g. ink, milk or mayonnaise) and represent an important class of complex fluid. Of particular significance for many commercial products and industrial processes is the ability to control and manipulate the macroscopic flow response of a dispersion by tuning the microscopic interactions between the constituents. An important step towards attaining this goal is the development of robust theoretical methods for predicting from first-principles the rheology and nonequilibrium microstructure of well defined model systems subject to external flow. In this talk I will outline, using a series of examples, recent theoretical approaches for predicting the response of colloidal dispersions to external flow fields.