CHAOTIC DYNAMICS AND RHEOLOGY OF SUSPENSIONS OF PERIODICALLY FORCED SLENDER RODS IN SIMPLE SHEAR-FLOW

In an earlier paper, we had outlined a procedure for calculating the r heological parameters for periodically forced suspensions of slender r ods in simple shear flow in the chaotic regime. In this work, we exami ne the consequences of the above procedure on the dynamics and rheolog y of similar suspensions starting off with uniform initial orientation distributions as well as aligned initial distributions. We provide nu merical evidence for existence of riddled and intermingled basins of a ttractions in the system. We discuss the limitations of the diffusion equation approach in the chaotic regime. We also demonstrate that smal l changes in the preparation of aligned suspensions can lead to dramat ically different rheological behaviour in some parametric regimes. In other parametric regimes differences in the dynamical behaviour do not translate into differences in the rheological behaviour of aligned su spensions.