The Rheology of Nanoparticle Additives

This dissertation applies mesh free computational methods to investigate the rheological impact of arbitrarily shaped nanoparticle additives in shearing interfaces. Specifically, Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics is used for its flexibility in modeling moving fluid-structure interfaces, the ability to model non-Newtonian fluids, as well as having the capability to add any additional physics deemed appropriate. With this modeling technique, a sufficient theory for the non-Einstein like rheological modification seen with certain nanoparticle additives is achieved based on surface tension effects between the additives and solvent. Computational results are compared with experiment resulting in good agreement.