Sedimentation of particles in shear flows of viscoelastic fluids with fibers

We study the effect of fiber additives on rheology and sedimentation of particle suspensions in a base viscoelastic suspending fluid in the case when the suspension is subjected to shear flow. We found experimentally that fiber additives (3–6 mm in length and 8–12 μm in diameter at a mass fraction of 0–0.4%) increase the suspension viscosity and retard the particle sedimentation significantly. At the same mass concentration, long and thin fibers reduce the sedimentation velocity and increase the viscosity to a much greater extent than short and thick fibers. We revealed that both rheology and sedimentation are controlled by a single conformational parameter (overlap parameter) defined as the number of fibers per unit volume multiplied by fiber length cubed.