Dynamic simulation of sheared suspensions. I. General method

A general method is presented for simulating the dynamical behavior of a suspension of particles which interact through both hydrodynamic and nonhydrodynamic forces. In the molecular-dynamics-like simulation there are two different procedures for computing the interactions among particles: a pairwise additivity of forces and a pairwise additivity of velocities. The pairwise additivity of forces is the preferred method as it preserves the hydrodynamic lubrication forces which prevent particles from overlapping. The two methods are compared in a simulation of a monolayer of identical rigid non-Brownian spherical particles in a simple shear flow. Periodic boundary conditions are used to model an infinite suspension. Both methods predict the presence of a shear induced anisotropic local structure whose form and strength depend on the concentration of particles, the nonhydrodynamic forces, and the shear rate. Increasing the particle concentration up to near the maximum fraction that can still flow results in a transition to a layered structure in which planes of particles slide relative to one another. The anisotropic local structure and transition to a layered structure predict a non-Newtonian suspension rheology.