2025/06/05 by Amir Shee, Shee, Amir, Ritwik Bandyopadhyay +3
Engineering · Chemical Engineering · #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #Rheology and Fluid Dynamics Studies #Vibration Control and Rheological Fluids
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.05262
We numerically investigate the steady shear rheology of mixtures of active and passive Brownian particles, with varying fractions of active components. We find that even a small fraction of active dopants triggers fluidization with comparable efficiency to fully active systems. A combined parameter, active energy, given by dopant fraction multiplied by propulsion speed squared controls the steady shear rheology and glass transition of the active-passive mixtures. These results together provide a quantitative strategy for fine-tuning the mechanical properties of a soft material with small amounts of active dopants.