Shear Flow of Aggregated Nanosuspensions–Fundamentals and Model Formulation

Theoretical aspects of shear flows of aggregated nanosuspensions are presented and applied to formulate appropriate models. Technological context of this work is related to formulation of stable suspensions of nanoparticles of specific rheological properties by breaking‐up nanoparticle clusters in high shear devices. Accordingly the population balance modeling is applied with kinetics including effects of aggregation, breakage and restructuring of aggregates; effects of suspension rheology on the flow are included as well. Rheological model includes the effect of clustering of primary nanoparticles. Population balances are solved using QMOM that is linked to the CFD code. Results of numerical simulations are presented for laminar and turbulent flows. Part of the 1st International Conference on Industrial Processes for Nano and Micro Products, London, 2007.