Correlation between the toroidal modes of an elastic sphere and the viscosity of liquids

Abstract

Vibration characteristics of elastic nanostructures embedded in fluid medium have been used for biological and mechanical sensing and also to investigate materials and mechanical properties. An analytical approach has been developed in this paper to accurately predict toroidal vibrations of an elastic nanosphere in water–glycerol mixture. The Maxwell and Kelvin–Voigt models are used to describe the viscoelasticity of this fluid. The influence of key parameters such as glycerol mass fraction, sphere radius, and angular mode number are studied. We demonstrate that the sphere radius plays a significant role on the quality factor. Results also highlight three behavior zones: viscous fluid, transition, and elastic solid. In addition, these investigations can serve as benchmark solution in design of liquid sensors.