SUSPENSIONS OF PROLATE SPHEROIDS IN STOKES-FLOW .2. STATISTICALLY HOMOGENEOUS DISPERSIONS

The simulation method for prolate spheroids in Stokes flow introduced in a companion paper (Claeys & Brady 1993 a) is extended to handle statistically homogeneous unbounded dispersions. The convergence difficulties associated with the slow decay of velocity disturbances at zero Reynolds number are overcome by applying O'Brien's renormalization procedure. The Ewald summation technique is employed to accelerate the evaluation of all mobility interactions. As a first application of this new method, the hydrodynamic transport properties of equilibrium hard-ellipsoid structures are calculated for aspect ratios ranging from 3 to 50. Calculated viscosities in the isotropic phase agree reasonably well with published experimental measurements.