Proposition of extension of models relating rheological quantities and microscopic structure through the use of a double fractal structure

Abstract

Colloidal suspensions and the relation between their rheology and their microstructure are investigated. The literature showed great evidence of the relation between rheological quantities and particle volume fraction, ignoring the influence of the cluster. We propose to extend previous models using a new double fractal structure which allows, first, to recover the well-known models on the case of the percolated system and, second, to capture the influence of the cluster size. This new model emphasizes the necessity of such a structure to account for recent experimental results. Then, the model is compared with data coming from the literature and shows close agreement.