U.S.-Chile: Statistical Mechanical Theory of Suspension

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9314799 Dahler This Americas Program award will support Dr. John S. Dahler, of the University of Minnesota, St. Paul in a research collaboration with Dr. Hector I. Jorquera, of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. The purpose of the research is to test, modify and extend a new theory, developed by the two researchers, of the flow characteristics of dense colloidal suspensions. Numerical computations based upon this theory will be performed. The theory will be used to predict other fluid properties such as a suspension's viscoelastic response to time-dependent flows, the rates of diffusion and sedimentation of the colloidal particles and the spectra of scattered light and thermal neutrons. Because of the technical complexity and subtlety of theoretical research, progress in this field has been slow. Therefore, increasing understanding of the transport properties of these materials would have an enormous technological impact in a number of industrial fields, extending from biotechnology to mixing and application of paint and concrete. The complementarity of the researchers expertise, analytic and numerical, is likely to lead to progress in the field. ***