Rheology of periodically sheared suspensions undergoing reversible-irreversible transition
My talk is about the development and application of a kinetic theory for turbulent gas-particle suspensions that exploits the same methods and approach used in the classical kinetic theory of gases (CKT). So it’s a statistical theory about the role of the large and small scales of the turbulence. How the large scales of the turbulence collectively transports the suspended particles, how they disperse and deposit them and resuspend them from surfaces exposed to the flow. It is about how the small scales of the turbulence bring pairs of particles closer together, and how the particles segregate and agglomerate. It’s a theory developed and refined by a number of key researchers over a number of years and now represents a rational basis for the modelling the transport/dispersion of complex turbulent gas-particle suspensions. I would like to subtitle my talk « In the Footsteps of Albert Einstein » because this kinetic theory exploits the same technique that Albert Einstein used to obtain the diffusion coefficient of Brownian particles that is enshrined in the Stokes Einstein Formula and which forms an essential theme of this talk.