Title

Sheared Active Fluids: Thickening, Thinning and Vanishing Viscosity

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Luca Giomi, Harvard University and Brandeis University
Tanniemola B. Liverpool, University of Bristol
M. Cristina Marchetti, Syracuse UniversityFollow

ORCID

Luca Giomi:

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7740-5960

Tanniemola B. Liverpool:

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4376-5604

Document Type

Article

Date

2-2-2010

Keywords

condensed matter, cytoskeleton, liquid crystals, cell aggregation

Language

English

Disciplines

Physics

Description/Abstract

We analyze the behavior of a suspension of active polar particles under shear. In the absence of external forces, orientationally ordered active particles are known to exhibit a transition to a state of non-uniform polarization and spontaneous flow. Such a transition results from the interplay between elastic stresses, due to the liquid crystallinity of the suspension, and internal active stresses. In the presence of an external shear we find an extremely rich variety of phenomena, including an effective reduction (increase) in the apparent viscosity depending on the nature of the active stresses and the flow-alignment property of the particles, as well as more exotic behaviors such as a non-monotonic stress/strain-rate relation and yield stress for large activities.

Additional Information

This manuscript is from arXiv.org, for more information see http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.0517

Recommended Citation

arXiv:1002.0517v1

Source

harvisted from arXiv.org

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.