Internal rotation in the hydrodynamics of weakly conducting dielectric suspensions

Hydrodynamic phenomena in weakly conducting single-phase media due to interphase electric stresses are reviewed in [1]. In the present paper, a model is constructed of a dielectric suspension with body couples due to the field acting on free charges distributed on the surface of the particles of the suspension. Averaging of the microscopic fields yields macroscopic equations for the field and the polarization of the dielectric suspension with allowance for the finite relaxation time of the distribution of the free charge on the phase interface. The developed model is used to consider the occurrence of spontaneous rotation of a dielectric cylinder in a weakly conducting suspension in the presence of an electric field; compared with the case of single-phase media [2], this is characterized by a significant reduction in the threshold intensity of the electric field with increasing concentration of the particles [3]. In the present model of a dielectric suspension, the destabilization of the cylinder is due to the occurrence of rotations of the particles of the suspension due to the interaction between the polarization and the motion of the medium. The relaxation equation for the polarization for the given model is analogous to the corresponding equation for media which can be magnetized [4-6].