Suspensions electro-viscous effect

L Zurita, F Carrique, AV Delgado, The primary electro viscous effect in silica suspensions. Ionic strength and pH effects. Colloids Surfaces 92 23-28, 1994. 

Even dilute suspensions of repulsive particles will have slightly greater viscosity than hard spheres because of the additional viscous dissipation related to the flow of fluid through the repulsive region around the particle. For particles with EDL repulsion this is known as the primary electro-viscous effect (Hunter, 2001). The total drag on the particle and the double layer is greater than the drag on a hard sphere. The increase in viscosity due to the primary electro-viscous effect is typically minimal. 

Concentrated suspensions can have significantly elevated viscosities (relative to hard spheres at the same volume fraction) due to the interaction between overlapping EDLs. For particles to push past each other the double layer must be distorted. This effect is known as the secondary electro-viscous effect (Hunter, 2001). Similar effects occur when the repulsion is by steric mechanism. 

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