| n electrorheological fluid consists of a suspension of fine dielectric particles in a liquid of low dielectric constant. Its viscosity increases dramatically in the presence of an electric field. If the electric field exceeds a critical value, the ER fluid turns into a solid. This thesis addresses the problems of the microscopic structures and the dynamical flow process. In particular, we propose a body-centered-tetragonal (bct) lattice as the ground state structure of the ER solid. The bct lattice has three Bravais lattice vectors of... |
