On the viscosity of glass composites containing rigid inclusions

A previously derived equation that treats viscosity as a field or transport property has been applied to calculate the effective viscosity of glass matrix composites containing rigid inclusions. The innovative aspect of the approach is that the shape of the particles, which is modeled by spheroids having a mean axial ratio, is explicitly considered. Thus, if information on the shape of the inclusions is available, the equation becomes predictive. Experimental data on different glass matrix composites drawn from the literature were used for comparison with the calculated values. It was shown that the equation is only applicable for volume fraction of inclusions for which the particle-particle interaction is negligible or nonexistent. The possibility of extending the application range of the approach is briefly addressed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.