An electrorheological fluid (ERF) is typically a suspension of semi-conducting solid particles dispersed in an insulating carrier fluid, and shows a dramatic change in rheological properties when an external electric field is applied. This rapid and reversible change in flow properties has potential application in many electronically controlled mechanical devices, but the development of efficient devices and optimal materials for ERF is still hindered by incomplete understanding of the fundamental physical mechanisms involved. In recent years there have been considerable advances In relating microstructural models to the rheological behaviour, and these will form the basis of this review. Results of the theoretical calculations and simulations will be compared to the key experimental evidence available. An overview of the fundamental physical concepts behind electrorheological fluid behaviour will also be presented.

Rheological techniques are frequently used to characterize particulate suspensions and polymer systems. Experimental data frequently show that similar trends and characteristics are found in both systems. Using common examples and illustrations of the rheological behaviour, we attempt to bring together these separate fields and investigate the common links in the different systems. In many cases the similar rheological behaviour observed in these different systems can be related to the same basic physical principles.

The effects of the transreactions on the rheological properties have been found in the poly(ethylene 2, 6-naphthalate) (PEN) and poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) blends. The rheological properties were very much dependent on the blend compositions, which, in turn, were related to extent of the reactions. In particular, a blend with 50/50 wt% composition exhibits an unusual and remarkable decrease in complex viscosity and it may be related to the randomness of the copolymer structure through transreactions. It has been identified by investigating the extent of transreactions and block length of the copolymer from the (ethylene 2, 6-naphthalate) (EN) and (ethylene terephthalate) (ET) units from $^1{H}$ n.m.r. spectra.

This study presents 1-dimensional simple model for sheet casting or rectangular fiber spinning process. In order to achieve this goal, we introduce the concept of force flux balance at the die exit, which assigns for the extensional flow outside the die the initial condition containing the information of shear flow history inside the die. With the Leonov constitutive equation that predicts non-vanishing second normal stress difference in shear flow, we are able to describe the anisotropic swelling behavior of the extrudate at least qualitatively. In other words, the negative value of the second normal stress difference causes thickness swelling much higher than width of extrudate. This result implies the importance of choosing the rheological model in the analysis of polymer processing operations, since the constitutive equation with the vanishing second normal stress difference is shown to exhibit the characteristic of isotropic swelling, that is, the thickness swell ratio always equal to the ratio in width direction.

In order to understand the flow behavior of Electrorheological (ER) fluid, dynamic simulation has been intensively performed for the last decade. When the shear flow is applied, it is easy to carry out the simulation with relatively small number of particles because of the periodic boundary condition. For the squeezing flow, however, it is not easy to apply the periodic boundary condition, and the number of particles needs to be increased to simulate the ER system more realistically. For this reason, the simulation of ER fluid under squeezing flow has been mostly performed with some representative chains or with the approximation that severely restricts the flow geometry to reduce the computational load. In this study, Message Passing Interface (MPI), which is one of the most widely-used parallel processing techniques, has been employed in a dynamic simulation of ER fluid under squeezing flow. As the number of particles used in the simulation could be increased significantly, full domain between the electrodes has been covered. The numerical treatment or the approximation used to reduce the computational load has been evaluated for its validity, and was found to be quite effective. As the number of particles is increased, the fluctuation of the normal stress becomes diminished and the prediction in general was found to be qualitatively In good agreement with the experimental results.

In this study, we consider the effect of nonionic surfactants on the rheological responses of emulsion systems under the action of a uniform do electric field. The model emulsions consist of a less conducting dispersed phase and a more conducting continuous phase. When the shear flow is weak, the positive viscosity effect is produced due to the formation of chain-like morphology. The nonionic surfactants used here generate two distinctively different effects. Specifically, first, the steric hindrance induced by the surfactant molecules renders the structure unstable, and thereby reduces the degree of positive viscosity effect. Secondly, the presence of surfactant molecules also prevents the rotation of the dispersed droplets by anchoring across the interface or by decreasing the size of dispersed phase. The second effect suppresses the negative viscosity effect.

The growth of a spherical vapor bubble contained in a large body of upper convected Maxwell fluid is theoretically analyzed under the devolatilization condition of polymer by using a Galerkin FEM in the Lagrangian frame. Using the finite element technique, a fully explicit numerical scheme is developed both for the calculation of pressure distribution and for the tracking of bubble surface. Oscillatory behavior in bubble radius is observed during growth and the oscillatory behavior is found to be due to the interaction of mass transfer resistance and elasticity. It is found that the elasticity of fluid accelerates the growth and removal of volatile component. It is also found that the bubble growth in the devolatilization of polymers is affected by both mass transfer resistance and viscoelasticity of fluids.

Blends of two thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers, HX2000 and Vectra A950, were prepared by melt blending. Effects of transesterification on these blends are investigated by comparing properties of the blends with and without the addition of an inhibitor, in terms of blend miscibility and rheology. Both the uninhibited and inhibited blends are found to be largely immiscible with very limited miscibility in HX2000-rich phase. No strong evidence indicates the occurrence of transesterification in the blends in the solid state. Dynamic rheological behaviour, such as shear storage modulus (G') and shear loss modulus (G") as a function of frequency, of the blends are interpreted by a three-zone model. HX2000 shows terminal-zone and plateau-zone behaviour, whilst Vectra A950 shows plateau-zone and transition-zone behaviour. The un- inhibited blends show plateau-zone behaviour up to 50% Vectra A950 content and the inhibited blends show plateau-zone behaviour up to 60% Vectra A950 content. Compositional dependence of the complex viscosities of the uninhibited and inhibited blends displayed positive deviations from additivity, which is a characteristic feature for the immiscible thermoplastic blends. When under steady shear, both the uninhibited and inhibited blends show shear thinning behaviour and their viscosities decrease monotonically with the addition of Vectra A950. Compositional dependence of the steady shear viscosities of the two sets of blends displayed negative deviations from additivity and the uninhibited blends were more viscous than the inhibited blends for the full composition range. Although limited agreement with the Cox-Merz rule is found for the inhibited blends, these two sets of blends, in general, do not follow the rule due to their liquid crystalline order and two-phase morphology. Despite being immiscible blends, transesterification, such as polymerization, in the blends might occur during the rheological characterization, supported by the facts that uninhibited blends show HX2000-dominant behaviour at lower Vectra A950 content and are more viscous than the inhibited blends. The addition of transesterification inhibitor in such blends is advised if only physical mixing is desired.ired.