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Mechanical properties of disordered materials are governed by their underlying free energy landscape. In contrast to external fields, embedding a small fraction of active particles within a disordered material generates nonequilibrium internal fields, which can help to circumvent kinetic barriers and modulate the free energy landscape. In this work, we investigate through computer simulations how the activity of active particles alters the mechanical response of deeply annealed polydisperse colloidal gels. We show that the "swim force" generated by the embedded active particles is responsible for determining the mode of mechanical failure, i.e., brittle vs. ductile. We find, and theoretically justify, that at a critical swim force the mechanical properties of the gel decrease abruptly, signaling a change in the mode of mechanical failure. The weakening of the elastic modulus above the critical swim force results from the change in gel porosity and distribution of attractive forces among gel particles, while below the critical swim force, the ductility enhancement is caused by an increase of gel structural disorder. Above the critical swim force, the gel develops a pronounced heterogeneous structure characterized by multiple pore spaces, and the mechanical response is controlled by dynamical heterogeneities. We contrast these results with those of a simulated monodisperse gel that exhibits a nonmonotonic trend of ductility modulation with increasing swim force, revealing a complex interplay between the gel energy landscape and embedded activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In striking contrast to equilibrium systems, inertia can profoundly alter the structure of active systems. Here, we demonstrate that driven systems can exhibit effective equilibrium-like states with increasing particle inertia, despite rigorously violating the fluctuation–dissipation theorem. Increasing inertia progressively eliminates motility-induced phase separation and restores equilibrium crystallization for active Brownian spheres. This effect appears to be general for a wide class of active systems, including those driven by deterministic time-dependent external fields, whose nonequilibrium patterns ultimately disappear with increasing inertia. The path to this effective equilibrium limit can be complex, with finite inertia sometimes acting to accentuate nonequilibrium transitions. The restoration of near equilibrium statistics can be understood through the conversion of active momentum sources to passive-like stresses. Unlike truly equilibrium systems, the effective temperature is now density dependent, the only remnant of the nonequilibrium dynamics. This density-dependent temperature can in principle introduce departures from equilibrium expectations, particularly in response to strong gradients. Our results provide additional insight into the effective temperature ansatz while revealing a mechanism to tune nonequilibrium phase transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In microrheology, the local rheological properties, such as the viscoelasticity of a complex fluid, are inferred from the free or forced motion of embedded colloidal probe particles. Theoretical machinery developed for forced-probe microrheology of colloidal suspensions focused on either constant-force (CF) or constant-velocity (CV) probes, while in experiments, neither the force nor the kinematics of the probe is fixed. More importantly, the constraint of CF or CV introduces a difficulty in the meaningful quantification of the fluctuations of the probe due to a thermodynamic uncertainty relation. It is known that, for a Brownian particle trapped in a harmonic potential well, the product of the standard deviations of the trap force and the particle position is dkBT in d dimensions, with kBT being the thermal energy. As a result, if the force (position) is not allowed to fluctuate, the position (force) fluctuation becomes infinite. To allow the measurement of fluctuations in theoretical studies, in this work, we consider a microrheology model in which the embedded probe is dragged along by a moving harmonic potential so that both its position and the trap force are allowed to fluctuate. Starting from the full Smoluchowski equation governing the dynamics of N hard active Brownian particles, we derive a pair Smoluchowski equation describing the dynamics of the probe as it interacts with one bath particle by neglecting hydrodynamic interactions among particles in the dilute limit. From this, we determine the mean and the variance (i.e., fluctuation) of the probe position in terms of the pair probability distribution. We then characterize the behavior of the system in the limits of both weak and strong trap. By taking appropriate limits, we show that our generalized model can be reduced to the well-studied CF or CV microrheology models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate that the mechanically defined "isothermal" compressibility behaves as a thermodynamic-like response function for suspensions of active Brownian particles. The compressibility computed from the active pressure—a combination of the collision and unique swim pressures—is capable of predicting the critical point for motility induced phase separation, as expected from the mechanical stability criterion. We relate this mechanical definition to the static structure factor via an active form of the thermodynamic compressibility equation and find the two to be equivalent, as would be the case for equilibrium systems. This equivalence indicates that compressibility behaves like a thermodynamic response function, even when activity is large. Finally, we discuss the importance of the phase interface when defining an active chemical potential. Previous definitions of the active chemical potential are shown to be accurate above the critical point but breakdown in the coexistence region. Inclusion of the swim pressure in the mechanical compressibility definition suggests that the interface is essential for determining phase behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a colloidal suspension at equilibrium, the diffusive motion of a tracer particle due to random thermal fluctuations from the solvent is related to the particle's response to an applied external force, provided this force is weak compared to the thermal restoring forces in the solvent. This is known as the fluctuation-dissipation theorem (FDT) and is expressed via the Stokes-Einstein-Sutherland (SES) relation D = kBT/ζ, where D is the particle's self-diffusivity (fluctuation), ζ is the drag on the particle (dissipation), and kBT is the thermal Boltzmann energy. Active suspensions are widely studied precisely because they are far from equilibrium—they can generate significant nonthermal internal stresses, which can break the detailed balance and time-reversal symmetry—and thus cannot be assumed to obey the FDT a priori. We derive a general relationship between diffusivity and mobility in generic colloidal suspensions (not restricted to near equilibrium) using generalized Taylor dispersion theory and derive specific conditions on particle motion required for the FDT to hold. Even in the simplest system of active Brownian particles (ABPs), these conditions may not be satisfied. Nevertheless, it is still possible to quantify deviations from the FDT and express them in terms of an effective SES relation that accounts for the ABPs conversion of chemical into kinetic energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonequilibrium phase transitions are routinely observed in both natural and synthetic systems. The ubiquity of these transitions highlights the conspicuous absence of a general theory of phase coexistence that is broadly applicable to both nonequilibrium and equilibrium systems. Here, we present a general mechanical theory for phase separation rooted in ideas explored nearly a half-century ago in the study of inhomogeneous fluids. The core idea is that the mechanical forces within the interface separating two coexisting phases uniquely determine coexistence criteria, regardless of whether a system is in equilibrium or not. We demonstrate the power and utility of this theory by applying it to active Brownian particles, predicting a quantitative phase diagram for motility-induced phase separation in both two and three dimensions. This formulation additionally allows for the prediction of novel interfacial phenomena, such as an increasing interface width while moving deeper into the two-phase region, a uniquely nonequilibrium effect confirmed by computer simulations. The selfconsistent determination of bulk phase behavior and interfacial phenomena offered by this mechanical perspective provide a concrete path forward toward a general theory for nonequilibrium phase transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particle-tracking microrheology of dilute active (self-propelled) colloidal suspensions is studied by considering the external force required to maintain the steady motion of an immersed constant-velocity colloidal probe. If the probe speed is zero, the suspension microstructure is isotropic but exhibits a boundary accumulation of active bath particles at contact due to their self-propulsion. As the probe moves through the suspension, the microstructure is distorted from the nonequilibrium isotropic state, which allows us to define a microviscosity for the suspension using the Stokes drag law. For a slow probe, we show that active suspensions exhibit a swim-thinning behavior in which their microviscosity is gradually lowered from that of passive suspensions as the swim speed increases. When the probe speed is fast, the suspension activity is obscured by the rapid advection of the probe and the measured microviscosity is indistinguishable from that of passive suspensions. Generally for finite activity, the suspension exhibits a velocity-thinning behavior—though with a zero-velocity plateau lower than passive suspensions—as a function of the probe speed. These behaviors originate from the interplay between the suspension activity and the hard-sphere excluded-volume interaction between the probe and a bath particle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern biomedical applications such as targeted drug delivery require a delivery system capable of enhanced transport beyond that of passive Brownian diffusion. In this work, an osmotic mechanism for the propulsion of a vesicle immersed in a viscous fluid is proposed. By maintaining a steady-state solute gradient inside the vesicle, a seepage flow of the solvent (e.g. water) across the semipermeable membrane is generated, which in turn propels the vesicle. We develop a theoretical model for this vesicle-solute system in which the seepage flow is described by a Darcy flow. Using the reciprocal theorem for Stokes flow, it is shown that the seepage velocity at the exterior surface of the vesicle generates a thrust force that is balanced by the hydrodynamic drag such that there is no net force on the vesicle. We characterize the motility of the vesicle in relation to the concentration distribution of the solute confined inside the vesicle. Any osmotic solute is able to propel the vesicle so long as a concentration gradient is present. In the present work, we propose active Brownian particles (ABPs) as a solute. To maintain a symmetry-breaking concentration gradient, we consider ABPs with spatially varying swim speed, and ABPs with constant properties but under the influence of an orienting field. In particular, it is shown that at high activity, the vesicle velocity is U∼[K⊥/(ηeℓm)]∫Πswim0ndΩ, where Πswim0 is the swim pressure just outside the thin accumulation boundary layer on the vesicle interior surface, n is the unit normal vector of the vesicle boundary, K⊥ is the membrane permeability, ηe is the viscosity of the solvent, andℓm is the membrane thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diffusiophoresis is the process by which a colloidal particle moves in response to the concentration gradient of a chemical solute. Chemically active particles generate solute concentration gradients via surface chemical reactions which can result in their own motion--the self-diffusiophoresis of Janus particles -- and in the motion of other nearby particles -- normal down-gradient diffusiophoresis. The long-range nature of the concentration disturbance created by a reactive particle results in strong interactions among particles and can lead to the formation of clusters and even coexisting dense and dilute regions often seen in active matter systems. In this work, we present a general method to determine the many-particle solute concentration field allowing the dynamic simulation of the motion of thousands of reactive particles. With the simulation method, we first clarify and demonstrate the notion of "chemical screening," whereby the long-ranged interactions become exponentially screened, which is essential for otherwise diffusiophoretic suspensions would be unconditionally unstable. Simulations show that uniformly reactive particles, which do not self-propel, form loosely packed clusters but no coexistence is observed. The simulations also reveal that there is a stability threshold -- when the "chemical fuel" concentration is low enough, thermal Brownian motion is able to overcome diffusiophoretic attraction. Janus particles that self-propel show coexistence, but, interestingly, the stability threshold for clustering is not affected by the self-motion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a comprehensive computational study of the short-time transport properties of bidisperse hard-sphere colloidal suspensions and the corresponding porous media. Our study covers bidisperse particle size ratios up to 4 and total volume fractions up to and beyond the monodisperse hard-sphere close packing limit. The many-body hydrodynamic interactions are computed using conventional Stokesian Dynamics (SD) via a Monte-Carlo approach. We address suspension properties including the short-time translational and rotational self-diffusivities, the instantaneous sedimentation velocity, the wavenumber-dependent partial hydrodynamic functions, and the high-frequency shear and bulk viscosities and porous media properties including the permeability and the translational and rotational hindered diffusivities. We carefully compare the SD computations with existing theoretical and numerical results. For suspensions, we also explore the range of validity of various approximation schemes, notably the pairwise additive approximations with the Percus-Yevick structural input. We critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of the SD algorithm for various transport properties. For very dense systems, we discuss in detail the interplay between the hydrodynamic interactions and the structures due to the presence of a second species of a different size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new continuum perspective for phoretic motion is developed that is applicable to particles of any shape in 'microstructured' fluids such as a suspension of solute or bath particles. Using the reciprocal theorem for Stokes flow it is shown that the local osmotic pressure of the solute adjacent to the phoretic particle generates a thrust force (via a 'slip' velocity) which is balanced by the hydrodynamic drag such that there is no net force on the body. For a suspension of passive Brownian bath particles this perspective recovers the classical result for the phoretic velocity owing to an imposed concentration gradient. In a bath of active particles that self-propel with characteristic speed $U_0$ for a time $\tau _R$ and then change direction randomly, taking a step of size $\ell = U_0 \tau _R$ , at high activity the phoretic velocity is $\boldsymbol {U} \sim - U_0 \ell \boldsymbol {\nabla } \phi _b$ , where $\phi _b$ is a measure of the 'volume' fraction of the active bath particles. The phoretic velocity is independent of the size of the phoretic particle and of the viscosity of the suspending fluid. Because active systems are inherently out of equilibrium, phoretic motion can occur even without an imposed concentration gradient. It is shown that at high activity when the run length varies spatially, net phoretic motion results in $\boldsymbol {U} \sim - \phi _b U_0 \boldsymbol {\nabla } \ell$. These two behaviours are special cases of the more general result that phoretic motion arises from a gradient in the swim pressure of active matter. Finally, it is shown that a field that orients (but does not propel) the active particles results in a phoretic velocity $\boldsymbol {U} \sim - \phi _b U_0 \ell \boldsymbol {\nabla }\varPsi$ , where $\varPsi$ is the (non-dimensional) potential associated with the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many active matter systems are known to perform Lévy walks during migration or foraging. Such superdiffusive transport indicates long-range correlated dynamics. These behavior patterns have been observed for microswimmers such as bacteria in microfluidic experiments, where Gaussian noise assumptions are insufficient to explain the data. We introduce active Lévy swimmers to model such behavior. The focus is on ideal swimmers that only interact with the walls but not with each other, which reduces to the classical Lévy walk model but now under confinement. We study the density distribution in the channel and force exerted on the walls by the Lévy swimmers, where the boundaries require proper explicit treatment. We analyze stronger confinement via a set of coupled kinetics equations and the swimmers' stochastic trajectories. Previous literature demonstrated that power-law scaling in a multiscale analysis in free space results in a fractional diffusion equation. We show that in a channel, in the weak confinement limit active Lévy swimmers are governed by a modified Riesz fractional derivative. Leveraging recent results on fractional fluxes, we derive steady state solutions for the bulk density distribution of active Lévy swimmers in a channel, and demonstrate that these solutions agree well with particle simulations. The profiles are non-uniform over the entire domain, in contrast to constant-in-the-bulk profiles of active Brownian and run-and-tumble particles. Our theory provides a mathematical framework for Lévy walks under confinement with sliding no-flux boundary conditions and provides a foundation for studies of interacting active Lévy swimmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diffusion in bidisperse Brownian hard-sphere suspensions is studied by Stokesian Dynamics (SD) computer simulations and a semi-analytical theoretical scheme for colloidal short-time dynamics, based on Beenakker and Mazur's method [Physica A 120, 388-410 (1983); 126, 349-370 (1984)]. Two species of hard spheres are suspended in an overdamped viscous solvent that mediates the salient hydrodynamic interactions among all particles. In a comprehensive parameter scan that covers various packing fractions and suspension compositions, we employ numerically accurate SD simulations to compute the initial diffusive relaxation of density modulations at the Brownian time scale, quantified by the partial hydrodynamic functions. A revised version of Beenakker and Mazur's δγ-scheme for monodisperse suspensions is found to exhibit surprisingly good accuracy, when simple rescaling laws are invoked in its application to mixtures. The so-modified δγ scheme predicts hydrodynamic functions in very good agreement with our SD simulation results, for all densities from the very dilute limit up to packing fractions as high as 40%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restricted sliding or rotational motion of colloidal particles plays a key role in the emergence of discontinuous shear thickening (DST). From viscometric functions to the number of contacting neighbors under an applied deformation, a hindrance to sliding motion significantly changes the behavior of dense suspensions on all scales. In this work, implicitly by using a modified hydrodynamic model based on Stokesian dynamics and explicitly by solving for the hydrodynamics of nonsmooth colloids, we show that lubrication forces that arise from surface asperities effectively provide such constraints to tangential particle motion. A transition from continuous shear thickening to DST is observed as the surface roughness of the particles is systematically increased. In this hydrodynamic model for DST, normal stress differences remain negative in the shear-thickened state (STS). Study of the spatial stress distribution indicates the onset of DST to be a highly localized event; however, particle self-diffusivity and the microstructural network suggest a rather uniform structure in the STS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ an analogy to traditional dynamic light scattering to describe the inhomogeneous and anisotropic diffusion of colloid particles near a solid boundary measured via evanescent wave dynamic light scattering. Following this approach, we generate new expressions for the short-time self- and collective diffusivities of colloidal dispersions with arbitrary volume fraction. We use these expressions in combination with accelerated Stokesian dynamics simulations to calculate the diffusivities in the limit of large and small scattering wave numbers for evanescent penetration depths ranging from four particle radii to one-fifth of a particle radius and volume fractions from 10% to 40%. We show that at high volume fractions, and larger penetration depths, the boundaries have little effect on the dynamics of the suspension parallel to the wall since, to a first approximation, the boundary acts hydrodynamically much as another nearby particle. However, near and normal to the wall, the diffusivity shows a strong dependence on penetration depth for all volume fractions. This is due to the lubrication interactions between the particles and the boundary as the particle moves relative to the wall. These results are novel and comprehensive with respect to the range of penetration depth and volume fraction and provide a complete determination of the effect of hydrodynamic interactions on colloidal diffusion adjacent to a rigid boundary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new Stokesian dynamics (SD) algorithm for Brownian suspensions is presented. The implementation is based on the recently developed accelerated Stokesian dynamics (ASD) simulation method [Sierou and Brady, J. Fluid Mech. 448, 115 (2001)] for non-Brownian particles. As in ASD, the many-body long-range hydrodynamic interactions are computed using fast Fourier transforms, and the resistance matrix is inverted iteratively, in order to keep the computational cost O(N log N). A fast method for computing the Brownian forces acting on the particles is applied by splitting them into near- and far-field contributions to avoid the O(N[SUP3]) computation of the square root of the full resistance matrix. For the near-field part, representing the forces as a sum of pairwise contributions reduces the cost to O(N); and for the far-field part, a Chebyshev polynomial approximation for the inverse of the square root of the mobility matrix results in an O(N[SUP1.25]log N) computational cost. The overall scaling of the method is thus roughly of O(N[SUP1.25]log N) and makes possible the simulation of large systems, which are necessary for studying long-time dynamical properties and/or polydispersity effects in colloidal dispersions. In this work the method is applied to study the rheology of concentrated colloidal suspensions, and results are compared with conventional SD. Also, a faster approximate method is presented and its accuracy discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple model for the rheological behavior of concentrated colloidal dispersions is developed. For a suspension of Brownian hard spheres there are two contributions to the macroscopic stress: a hydrodynamic and a Brownian stress. For small departures from equilibrium, the hydrodynamic contribution is purely dissipative and gives the high-frequency dynamic viscosity. The Brownian contribution has both dissipative and elastic parts and is responsible for the viscoelastic behavior of colloidal dispersions. An evolution equation for the pair-distribution function is developed and from it a simple scaling relation is derived for the viscoelastic response. The Brownian stress is shown to be proportional to the equilibrium radial-distribution function at contact, g(2;[lowercase_phi_synonym]), divided by the short-time self-diffusivity, D0s([lowercase_phi_synonym]), both evaluated at the volume fraction [lowercase_phi_synonym] of interest. This scaling predicts that the Brownian stress diverges at random close packing, [lowercase_phi_synonym]m, with an exponent of -2, that is, η’0 ∼ η(1 - [lowercase_phi_synonym]/[lowercase_phi_synonym]m)-2, where η’0 is the steady shear viscosity of the dispersion and η is the viscosity of the suspending fluid.Both the scaling law and the predicted magnitude are in excellent accord with experiment. For viscoelastic response, the theory predicts that the proper time scale is a2/D0s, where a is the particle radius, and, when appropriately scaled, the form of the viscoelastic response is a universal function for all volume fractions, again in agreement with experiment. In the presence of interparticle forces there is an additional contribution to the stress analogous to the Brownian stress. When the length scale characterizing the interparticle forces is comparable to the particle size, the theory predicts that there is only a quantitative... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is shown that the osmotic pressure of a colloidal dispersion can be interpreted as the isotropic part of the macroscopic particle stress in the suspension. The particle stress is in turn expressible in terms of hydrodynamic interactions among the suspended particles. Thus, there is a completely mechanical definition of the osmotic pressure, just as there is for the pressure in a molecular fluid. For an equilibrium suspension of colloidal particles subjected to thermal Brownian forces, this mechanical definition is shown to be exactly equal to the usual ‘‘thermodynamic’’ one. The derivation given here places the equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of macroparticle fluids on the same mechanical foundation that underlies the statistical mechanics of simple liquids. Furthermore, through this development the relationship between hydrodynamics and kinetic-theory-like descriptions of colloids is explained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suspensions of motile bacteria or synthetic microswimmers, termed active matter, manifest a remarkable propensity for self-organization, and formation of large-scale coherent structures. Most active matter research deals with almost homogeneous in space systems and little is known about the dynamics of strongly heterogeneous active matter. Here we report on experimental and theoretical studies on the expansion of highly concentrated bacterial droplets into an ambient bacteria-free fluid. The droplet is formed beneath a rapidly rotating solid macroscopic particle inserted in the suspension. We observe vigorous instability of the droplet reminiscent of a violent explosion. The phenomenon is explained in terms of continuum first-principle theory based on the swim pressure concept. Our findings provide insights into the dynamics of active matter with strong density gradients and significantly expand the scope of experimental and analytic tools for control and manipulation of active systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rheology during the start-up and cessation of simple shear flow has been investigated for near hard-sphere colloidal suspensions. Simulations augmented by theoretical analysis are used to determine how the non-Newtonian stress development and relaxation depend on the microstructure. Accelerated Stokesian dynamics (ASD) and Brownian dynamics (BD) simulations are used for 0.05=Pe=500 in concentrated freely flowing suspensions; the Péclet number defining the ratio of shear to thermal motion is Pe = 3πηγa³/kT with η the suspending fluid viscosity, γ the shear rate, and kT the thermal energy. Theoretical predictions based on the Smoluchowski equation for dilute suspensions are made, and these are primarily used for comparison with results from BD simulations in which hydrodynamic interactions are neglected. For suspensions with hydrodynamics, simulations by ASD are used to probe start-up and flow cessation over a large range of Pe; these studies focus on solid volume fraction ϕ = 0:4, with more limited examinations at other ϕ. The use of both BD and ASD simulations allows us to discriminate hydrodynamic interaction effects on the suspension rheology. The Brownian stresses computed by either method exhibit overshoots of their steady state value during the start-up of shear flow. The overshoots occur at strain amplitudes which depend on Pe, and the overshoot is described by a model based on extension of the concept of cage-breaking from glass dynamics. Results from the relaxation of a sheared suspension show that the distortion of the pair distribution function from its equilibrium form has a fast radial relaxation and a slow angular relaxation. The various rheometric functions (relative viscosity; first and second normal stress differences) are found to respond on different timescales, reflecting their different dependences on the flow-induced structure. A re-examination of steady shear flow allows us to find normal stress differences which tend properly toward zero at small Pe, unlike prior work; the discrepancy is found to be due to finite size scaling, as small simulations used in prior work resulted in excessively large normal stress responses at small Pe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hard sphere colloidal particles are a basic model system to study phase transitions, self-assembly and out-equilibrium states. Experimentally it has been shown that oscillatory shearing of a monodisperse hard sphere glass, produces two different crystal orientations; a face centered cubic (FCC) crystal with the close packed direction parallel to shear at high strains and an FCC crystal with the close packed direction perpendicular to shear at low strains. Here, using Brownian dynamics simulations of hard sphere particles, we have examined high volume fraction shear-induced crystals under oscillatory shear as well their glass counterparts at the same volume fraction. While particle displacements under shear in the glass are almost isotropic, the sheared FCC crystal structures oriented parallel to shear, are anisotropic due to the cooperative motion of velocity–vorticity layers of particles sliding over each other. These sliding layers generally result in lower stresses and less overall particle displacements. Additionally, from the two crystal types, the perpendicular crystal exhibits less stresses and displacements at smaller strains, however at larger strains, the sliding layers of the parallel crystal are found to be more efficient in minimizing stresses and displacements, while the perpendicular crystal becomes unstable. The findings of this work suggest that the process of shear-induced ordering for a colloidal glass is facilitated by large out of cage displacements, which allow the system to explore the energy landscape and find the minima in energy, stresses and displacements by configuring particles into a crystal oriented parallel to shear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a general theory for determining the force (and torque) exerted on a boundary (or body) in active matter. The theory extends the description of passive Brownian colloids to self-propelled active particles and applies for all ratios of the thermal energy kBT to the swimmer's activity ksTs =ζU2 0τR=6, where ζ is the Stokes drag coefficient, U0 is the swim speed and τR is the reorientation time of the active particles. The theory, which is valid on all length and time scales, has a natural microscopic length scale over which concentration and orientation distributions are confined near boundaries, but the microscopic length does not appear in the force. The swim pressure emerges naturally and dominates the behaviour when the boundary size is large compared to the swimmer's run length ⨏ = U0τR. The theory is used to predict the motion of bodies of all sizes immersed in active matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the constant stress and pressure rheology of dense hard-sphere colloidal suspensions using Brownian dynamics simulation. Expressing the flow behavior in terms of the friction coefficient--the ratio of shear to normal stress--reveals a shear arrest point from the collapse of the rheological data in the non- Brownian limit. The flow curves agree quantitatively (when scaled) with the experiments of Boyer et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 188301 (2011)]. Near suspension arrest, both the shear and the incremental normal viscosities display a universal power law divergence. This work shows the important role of jamming on the arrest of colloidal suspensions and illustrates the care needed when conducting and analyzing experiments and simulations near the flow-arrest transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the motion of a colloidal particle as it is driven by an oscillating external force of arbitrary amplitude and frequency through a colloidal dispersion. Large amplitude oscillatory flows (LAOFs) are examined predominantly from a phenomenological perspective in which experimental measurements inform constitutive models. Here, we investigate a LAOF from a microstructural perspective by connecting motion of the probe particle to the material response while making no assumptions a priori about how stress relaxes in the material. The suspension exerts nonconservative, hydrodynamic forces on the probe, while distortions in the particle configuration exert conservative forces: Brownian and interparticle forces, for example. The relative importance of each of these contributions to particle motion evolves with the degree of displacement from equilibrium. When the force on the probe is weak, the linear microviscoelasticity of the suspension is probed [see, e.g., Khair and Brady, J. Rheol. 49, 1449-1481 (2005)]. When oscillation rate is slow, the steady microrheology is probed [see, e.g., Squires and Brady, Phys. Fluids 17, 073101 (2005); Khair and Brady, J. Fluid Mech. 557, 73-117 (2006)]. This article develops a micromechanical model that recovers these limiting cases and then uses the same model to reveal the microrheology of colloidal dispersions deformed by a probe driven with arbitrary force amplitude and frequency. A chief result of this work is the discovery of a regime in which the resistance to motion of the probe particle is on average weaker than the resistance the probe experiences when deformed by high frequency oscillation. This hypoviscous effect arises when the reciprocating motion of the probe particle opens a channel free of other particles which is thus less resistive to probe motion. This effect is most apparent under the conditions of strong forces, rapid oscillation, and large extent of deformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though widely used in steady-flow heat transfer applications, the Nusselt number-a dimensionless heat transfer coefficient-has not been studied as thoroughly in oscillating flows and is therefore not generally used in thermoacoustic applications. This paper presents expressions for the Nusselt numbers of laminar oscillating flows within the pores of stacks and regenerators, derived from thermoacoustic theory developed by Rott and Swift. These expressions are based on bulk (velocity-weighted, cross-sectionally averaged) temperature, rather than the cross-sectionally averaged temperature. Results are shown for parallel plates, circular pores, rectangular pores, and within the boundary layer limit. It is shown that bulk temperature does not become infinite during an acoustic cycle and that the Nusselt number is a complex constant at all times. In addition, steady-flow Nusselt numbers are recovered when velocity and temperature profiles are like those in steady flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method is proposed for computing the low-Reynolds-number hydrodynamic forces on particles comprising a suspension confined by two parallel, no-slip walls. This is constructed via the two-dimensional analogue of Hasimoto’s solution (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 5, 1959, pp. 317–328) for a periodic array of point forces in a viscous, incompressible fluid, and, like Hasimoto, the summation of interactions is accelerated by substitution and superposition of ‘Ewald-like’ forcing. This method is akin to the accelerated Stokesian dynamics technique (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 448, 2001, pp. 115–146) and models the suspension dynamics with log–linear computational scaling. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated with a calculation of the high-frequency dynamic viscosity of a colloidal dispersion as function of volume fraction and channel width. Similarly, the short-time self-diffusivity for and the sedimentation rate of spherical particles in a confined suspension are determined. The results demonstrate the influence of confining geometry on the transport of small particles, which is becoming increasingly important for micro- and biofluidics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a general framework for modeling the hydrodynamic self-propulsion (i.e., swimming) of bodies (e.g., microorganisms) at low Reynolds number via Stokesian Dynamics simulations. The swimming body is composed of many spherical particles constrained to form an assembly that deforms via relative motion of its constituent particles. The resistance tensor describing the hydrodynamic interactions among the individual particles maps directly onto that for the assembly. Specifying a particular swimming gait and imposing the condition that the swimming body is force- and torque-free determine the propulsive speed. The body's translational and rotational velocities computed via this methodology are identical in form to that from the classical theory for the swimming of arbitrary bodies at low Reynolds number. We illustrate the generality of the method through simulations of a wide array of swimming bodies: pushers and pullers, spinners, the Taylor/Purcell swimming toroid, Taylor's helical swimmer, Purcell's three-link swimmer, and an amoeba-like body undergoing large-scale deformation. An open source code is a part of the supplementary material and can be used to simulate the swimming of a body with arbitrary geometry and swimming gait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]