Geometry-dependent viscosity reduction in sheared active fluids
Name
PhysRevFluids.2.043102.pdf
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5.11 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
4c4de9ec482509ac3ac17900c58fd6ab
Author(s)
Slomka, Jonasz Jozef
Dunkel, Joern
Date Issued
April 2017
Journal
Physical Review Fluids
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Citation
Słomka, Jonasz, and Jörn Dunkel. “Geometry-Dependent Viscosity Reduction in Sheared Active Fluids.” Physical Review Fluids, vol. 2, no. 4, Apr. 2017. © 2017 American Physical Society.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We investigate flow pattern formation and viscosity reduction mechanisms in active fluids by studying a generalized Navier-Stokes model that captures the experimentally observed bulk vortex dynamics in microbial suspensions. We present exact analytical solutions including stress-free vortex lattices and introduce a computational framework that allows the efficient treatment of higher-order shear boundary conditions. Large-scale parameter scans identify the conditions for spontaneous flow symmetry breaking, geometry-dependent viscosity reduction, and negative-viscosity states amenable to energy harvesting in confined suspensions. The theory uses only generic assumptions about the symmetries and long -wavelength structure of active stress tensors, suggesting that inviscid phases may be achievable in a broad class of nonequilibrium fluids by tuning confinement geometry and pattern scale selection.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVFLUIDS.2.043102
