Calibration of Dissipative Particle Dynamics method to study rheology of dense suspensions

Dissipative Particle Dynamics method is employed to model the particulate suspensions. The system input parameters are calibrated to capture the experimental relative viscosity versus volume fraction in dilute (φ≤ 0.2), semidilute (0.2<φ≤ 0.3) and dense regimes 0.3<φ≤ 0.45. Statistical uncertainties and system bulk and overall temperatures are monitored to guarantee that equilibrium has been quantitatively reached. It was found that increment of solvent drag coefficient or the dissipation rate (1≤γs≤200) between like solvent particles linearly increases the solvent and suspension viscosity. Solvent number density (ρs) changing from 2 to 20 in sync with the repulsion coefficient renders a parabolic variation for suspension and solvent viscosities. Two sets of calibrated simulation settings are ultimately proposed to reasonably capture the rheological behaviour of dilute to dense suspensions according to experiment and empirical relations for relative viscosity.