Stochastic aspects of bridging bonds of induced structure of electro-rheological fluids in shear flow

The bridging of electrodes by clusters of polarizable elements occurs to be a dominant feature of the response of certain electrorheological fluid sus pensions and liquid polymeric blends to the imposed electric field.. The ev olution of the bridging structure in deformation and flow is described as a stochastic process and identified with the macroscopic flow behavior. The effect of structure is introduced into the rheological equation providing i ts non-linear modification. The. comparisons are presented showing how the proposed rheological equation describes rheological characteristics measure d at steady shearing flow and start-up shearing flow.