Maxwell stress in fluid mixtures

Abstract

We examine the structure of Maxwell stress in binary fluid mixtures under an external electric field and discuss its consequence. In particular, we show that, in immiscible blends, it is intimately related to the statistics of domain structure. This leads to a compact formula, which may be useful in the investigation of electro-rheological effects in such systems. The stress tensor calculated in a phase separated fluid under a steady electric field is in a good agreement with recent experiments.