No Arabic abstract
The short-time motion of Brownian particles in an incompressible Newtonian fluid under shear, in which the fluid inertia becomes important, was investigated by direct numerical simulation of particulate flows. Three-dimensional simulations were performed, wherein external forces were introduced to approximately form Couette flows throughout the entire system with periodic boundary conditions. In order to examine the validity of the method, the mean square displacement of a single spherical particle in a simple shear flow was calculated, and these results were compared with a hydrodynamic analytical solution that includes the effects of the fluid inertia. Finally, the dynamical behavior of a monodisperse dispersion composed of repulsive spherical particles was examined on short time scales, and the shear-induced diffusion coefficients were measured for several volume fractions up to 0.50.
We have directly observed short-time stress propagation in viscoelastic fluids using two optically trapped particles and a fast interferometric particle-tracking technique. We have done this both by recording correlations in the thermal motion of the particles and by measuring the response of one particle to the actively oscillated second particle. Both methods detect the vortex-like flow patterns associated with stress propagation in fluids. This inertial vortex flow propagates diffusively for simple liquids, while for viscoelastic solutions the pattern spreads super-diffusively, dependent on the shear modulus of the medium.
We present numerical results for the dynamics of a single chain in steady shear flow. The chain is represented by a bead-spring model, and the smoothed profile method is used to accurately account for the effects of thermal fluctuations and hydrodynamic interactions acting on beads due to host fluids. It is observed that the chain undergoes tumbling motions and that its dimensionless frequency F depends only on the Peclet number Pe with a power law. The exponent of Pe clearly changes from 2/3 to 1 around the critical Peclet number, indicating that the crossover reflects the competition of thermal fluctuation and shear flow. The presented numerical results agree well with our theoretical analysis based on Jefferys work.
Recent experimental studies have demonstrated that cellular motion can be directed by topographical gradients, such as those resulting from spatial variations in the features of a micropatterned substrate. This phenomenon, known as topotaxis, is especially prominent among cells persistently crawling within a spatially varying distribution of cell-sized obstacles. In this article we introduce a toy model of topotaxis based on active Brownian particles constrained to move in a lattice of obstacles, with space-dependent lattice spacing. Using numerical simulations and analytical arguments, we demonstrate that topographical gradients introduce a spatial modulation of the particles persistence, leading to directed motion toward regions of higher persistence. Our results demonstrate that persistent motion alone is sufficient to drive topotaxis and could serve as a starting point for more detailed studies on self-propelled particles and cells.
Frictional forces affect the rheology of hard-sphere colloids, at high shear rate. Here we demonstrate, via numerical simulations, that they also affect the dynamics of active Brownian particles, and their motility induced phase separation. Frictional forces increase the angular diffusivity of the particles, in the dilute phase, and prevent colliding particles from resolving their collision by sliding one past to the other. This leads to qualitatively changes of motility-induced phase diagram in the volume-fraction motility plane. While frictionless systems become unstable towards phase separation as the motility increases only if their volume fraction overcomes a threshold, frictional system become unstable regardless of their volume fraction. These results suggest the possibility of controlling the motility induced phase diagram by tuning the roughness of the particles.
Brownian motion has played important roles in many different fields of science since its origin was first explained by Albert Einstein in 1905. Einsteins theory of Brownian motion, however, is only applicable at long time scales. At short time scales, Brownian motion of a suspended particle is not completely random, due to the inertia of the particle and the surrounding fluid. Moreover, the thermal force exerted on a particle suspended in a liquid is not a white noise, but is colored. Recent experimental developments in optical trapping and detection have made this new regime of Brownian motion accessible. This review summarizes related theories and recent experiments on Brownian motion at short time scales, with a focus on the measurement of the instantaneous velocity of a Brownian particle in a gas and the observation of the transition from ballistic to diffusive Brownian motion in a liquid.