An electrorheological fluids (ERF) are the suspensions consisting of dielectric rigid particles in the viscous (or viscoelastic) media. Based on the three-dimensional well-ordered multi-particle model (the crystal model) we describe rheological properties of ERF. We use the model of cubic body-centered lattice. We also assume that the electric field is orthogonal to the velocity of shear of fluid's layers. The displacement gradients are assumed to be different (from small to finite values). For small deformations in the framework of the approach proposed and under assumptions made it was stated that the ERF can be treated as a viscoelastic body and it is consequently described on the basis of the linear theory of viscoelasticity. We obtain a complex dynamic shear modulus as a function of the electric field strength, volume fraction of filler, electric properties of components of ERF and viscosity of the fluid phase. For finite deformation the relation between stresses and shear rate gradients has also been made. The relation does not keeps whatever phenomenological or arbitrary parameters and takes into account contribution an electrostatic interaction painted by external field dipoles. From other side a bunch of computational experiments by Monte-Carlo approximation to model both the structure and the peculiarities of ERF were made. We use a procedure by Metropolis for canonic NVT ensemble and parallel computational technologies. The structural characteristics, density, energetic parameter and others for system under consideration have been estimated. In order to verify a theoretical predictions we compare both approaches and some experimental data.

Based on the model approach, we propose a description of elastic properties of high elastic polymer-matrix composites filled with rigid particles in accounting for the properties of interphase layers. We form an estimate of the influence of the molecular and structural characteristics of interphase layers on the mechanical properties of composites. On this basis, we obtain the range of values within which it is necessary to take into account the influence of interphase layers on the mechanical properties of composites.We obtain the analytic formula that relates the elastic modulus of shear of the composite material to the structural parameters of the composite and the macroscopic properties of the interphase layer. We perform an estimate of the lower bound of influence of the parameters of the interphase layer on the elastic properties of rubber-like composite materials. From this we conclude that the allowance for the influence of these parameters leads to a variation of 20% for the shear modulus of composite materials.

Consideration is given to one of the new classes of smart materials, namely, to electrorheological fluids. The latter are suspensions of dielectric particles of different concentration in a viscous medium, which have unique properties and may change their rheological characteristics by hundreds of thousand times in superposition of electric fields. The given materials hold much promise from the practical standpoint (they have been applied in space engineering, biomechanics and biomedicine). Experiments show that the electrorheological effect is basically related to electrostatic interaction of particles and dynamics of changes in the structure of disperse particle distribution under the action of the electric field and strain rate gradients. Below, the well-known theoretical and experimental papers on rheology of such media are briefly reviewed and analyzed critically. The paper deals with the original approach based on a physical crystal model (a 3D multiparticle ordered model), which allows a well-developed mathematical body of crystal theory to be used. Consideration is given to the approximation of pair interaction between particles as equivalent dipoles and the force of electrostatic interaction of particles polarized by the external field with regard to the nearest neighbors up to and including the third order. The defining rheological relationships derived in the framework of the model are analyzed. Besides, theoretical predictions based on model media are verified experimentally over a wide range of changes in dielectric and structural-rheological properties of components. The advantages of the theory are discussed and the results obtained are compared to those obtained by foreign scientists. The direction of further development and the way of theory generalization for high (ultimate) strains are considered.

The three-dimensional multi-particle well-ordered model could be considered as an analogy to a crystal body. We use this model for describing rheological properties of concentrated electrorheological fluids (ER fluids). According to this model, the particles of the suspension take their places at sites of a grid with specified type of symmetry and then an electric field is applied to the fluid. Taking into account hydrodynamic couple interaction of particles and forces of electrostatic interaction of particles polarized under the action of an external electric field and employing the mathematical apparatus of the microscopic theory of crystals, we construct the basic relationships for describing viscoelastic electrorheological properties of ER fluids.

Based on the scaling theory, mechanical properties of a complex of macromolecules and colloidal particles with attracting adsorbed surface layers are described. The dependences of deformation stress on molecular and structural characteristics of polymer chains, the size and volume fraction of the particles, characteristics of interaction between the particle surface and macromozdlecular segments, and on temperature were obtained. The description proposed is employed to analyze some peculiar features of the reinforcement effect of polymer networks during compounding.