Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 302 (2006) 702703

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Note

The Einstein correction to the bulk viscosity in n dimensions

Aditya S. Khair
Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Received 16 June 2006; accepted 30 July 2006
Available online 2 August 2006

Abstract
We calculate the effective bulk viscosity of a dilute dispersion of rigid n-dimensional hyperspheres in a compressible Newtonian fluid at zero
Reynolds number.
2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Colloidal dispersion; Bulk viscosity; Hypersphere; Compressible fluid; Low-Reynolds-number flow; Effective properties; Two-phase material

1. Introduction
Recently, Brady et al. [1] computed the bulk viscosity (also
known as the second or volume viscosity) of a dilute colloidal
dispersion to O( 2 ) in the volume fraction of the (rigid spherical) suspended particles. This calculation requires determination of the dispersion microstructure, which reflects a balance
between an imposed uniform expansion flow and Brownian diffusion of the particles. The O( 2 ) contribution to the bulk viscosity arises from two-particle interactions, whereas the O()
contribution is due to the disturbance flow generated by a single particle in the expansion flow. We call the O() contribution
the Einstein correction, in homage to Einstein [2] who computed the O() contribution to the shear viscosity of a dilute
colloidal dispersion of rigid spheres. In this Note, we compute
the Einstein correction to the bulk viscosity for a dispersion of
n-dimensional hyperspheres. The correction for n = 2 represents the main outcome of this work; it gives the bulk viscosity
for a dilute dispersion of two-dimensional rigid cylinders
a result of practical significance. Furthermore, the general ndimensional problem provides a useful exercise for students of
transport processes and fluid dynamics, by introducing basic
concepts in suspension mechanics, while, at the same time, offering a glimpse into an active research area.

E-mail address: aditya@caltech.edu.

0021-9797/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2006.07.076

2. Analysis
We begin with the constitutive equation for the stress in a
n-dimensional compressible Newtonian fluid (see, e.g., Batchelor [3]), viz.


2
= pth I + 2e + ( u)I ,
(1)
n
where pth is the thermodynamic pressure (as defined by the
fluids equation of state), e = 12 [u + (u) ] is the rate of
strain tensor with u the fluid velocity, is the shear viscosity,
is the bulk viscosity, and I is the identity tensor. In zeroReynolds-number flow the velocity field can be decomposed
into an uniform expansion everywhere in the fluid and a disturbance flow created by any immersed particles, which satisfies
the usual incompressible Stokes equations; that is,
1
u = er + us ,
n
where r is the position vector, e is the expansion rate, u = e,
and us = 0. In turn, the fluid stress can be split into a contribution due to the uniform expansion flow, e = (e pth )I ,
and a disturbance stress s = p s I + 2es , with s = 0.
Here, p s is the dynamical pressure field of the incompressible
Stokes flow.
Consider a force- and torque-free n-dimensional hypersphere of radius a immersed in the uniform expansion flow.
Exploiting the linearity of the Stokes equations, and noting the

A.S. Khair / Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 302 (2006) 702703

fact that the only vector present is r, one immediately concludes

that the (harmonic) disturbance pressure p s is identically zero.
Thus, the disturbance flow us is also a (vector) harmonic function and is given by
 
1 a n
us = e
r,
n r
where r = |r|. Note, in one dimension (n = 1) the disturbance
flow is spatially constant, as required by the incompressibility
condition, us = 0.
To calculate the effective bulk viscosity of a dilute suspension of hyperspheres we form the volume average of the Cauchy
stress tensor (Brady et al. [1]) to obtain


2

  = pth f I + 2e +  uI + NS,

(2)
n
where . . . denotes an average over the entire dispersion (particles plus fluid), . . .f is an average over the fluid phase only,
N is the particle number density, and the average extra
particle
stress is a number average defined by S = (1/N) N
=1 S ,
where the contribution from particle is given by

1
S =
(3)
(r n + nr) dS ,
2
S

with n the unit normal pointing out of the particle. (Note,

Eq. (3) is applicable to rigid particles only; a more general
expression for the extra particle stressvalid for drops and
bubbles in addition to rigid particlesis given by Eq. (3.1) of
Brady et al. [1].)
The effective bulk viscosity, eff , relates the deviation of the
trace of the average stress from its equilibrium (e = 0) value to
the average rate of expansion e, namely,
 eq 
1
ii  ii ,
(4)
n
where the summation convention is applied to repeated indices.
The trace of the average stress is


ii .
ii  = n e pth f + NS
(5)
eff e =

The trace of average extra particle stress is calculated as


Sii  = ri ij nj dS


2(n 1)
dS
ea
= (e pth )a +
n

703


2 n/2
2(n 1)
= (e pth )a +
ea a n1
,
n
(n/2)

(6)

where (z) is the Gamma function. Thus, from (5) we have

ii  = n(e pth ) + 2(n 1)e,

(7)

where we have used e = e(1 ) and pth f = pth (1 ),

and the volume fraction of hyperspheres is defined by
=

a n 2 n/2
N.
n (n/2)

From (4), the effective bulk viscosity is found to be



2(n 1)
1
eff = +

n
1
2(n 1)
+
as 0.
n

(8)

(9)

The case n = 3 gives a correction of 43 , as reported by Brady

et al. [1]. And for n = 2two-dimensional rigid cylindersthe
correction is . In one dimension, n = 1, the spatially uniform disturbance flow does not generate any viscous stresses in
the fluid; consequently, the correction is zero. Interestingly, as
n the correction approaches a limiting value of 2; in
contrast to the Einstein correction for the shear viscosity, which
grows as n for large n (Brady [4]). A limiting value exists
for the bulk viscosity correction for the following reason. The
(constant) expansion rate e is (equally) distributed over an increasing number of spatial dimensions; hence, the expansion
rate per dimension is O(1/n). On the other hand, the extra particle stress scales as O(n), for large n (recall, the particle stress
is proportional to the disturbance velocity gradient, which increases with increasing n owing to the more rapid decay of the
disturbance velocity with distance). Thus, from (4), their product gives a eff that is independent of n as n .
Acknowledgment
The author thanks Dr. John F. Brady for fruitful discussions
and critical reading of the manuscript.
References
[1] J.F. Brady, A.S. Khair, M. Swaroop, J. Fluid Mech. 554 (2006) 109.
[2] A. Einstein, Ann. Phys. 19 (1906) 289.
[3] G.K. Batchelor, An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics, Cambridge Univ.
Press, Cambridge, 1973.
[4] J.F. Brady, Int. J. Multiphase Flow 10 (1984) 113.