The simulation method for prolate spheroids in Stokes flow introduced in a companion paper (Claeys & Brady 1993a) is extended to handle statistically homogeneous unbounded dispersions. The convergence difficulties associated with the slow decay of velocity disturbances at zero Reynolds number are overcome by applying O';Brien's renormalization procedure. The Ewald summation technique is employed to accelerate the evaluation of all mobility interactions. As a first application of this new method, the hydrodynamic transport properties of equilibrium hard-ellipsoid structures are calculated for aspect ratios ranging from 3 to 50. Calculated viscosities in the isotropic phase agree reasonably well with published experimental measurements.

The short-time limit of the hydrodynamic transport properties is calculated for crystalline dispersions of parallel prolate spheroids using a moment expansion technique similar in concept to the simulation method known as Stokesian dynamics. The concentration dependence of the sedimentation rate, the hindered diffusivity and the Theological behaviour of face-centred lattices are examined for concentrations up to regular close packing (74% by volume). The influence of the detailed microstructure of the dispersion is also investigated by considering different arrangements of parallel ellipsoids. Useful reference configurations are proposed as standard geometries for regular arrays of prolate spheroids.

A new simulation method is presented for low-Reynolds-number flow problems involving elongated particles in an unbounded fluid. The technique extends the principles of Stokesian dynamics, a multipole moment expansion method, to ellipsoidal particle shapes. The methodology is applied to prolate spheroids in particular, and shown to be efficient and accurate by comparison with other numerical methods for Stokes flow. The importance of hydrodynamic interactions is illustrated by examples on sedimenting spheroids and particles in a simple shear flow.