2008/04/14 by Brian M. Haines, Brian M Haines, Igor S Aronson +4 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Micro and Nano Robotics #Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization #physics.bio-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1478-3975/5/4/046003
15 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Biology
arxiv created 2008/04/14 · openalex publication_date 2008/11/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Suspensions of self-propelled particles are studied in the framework of two-dimensional (2D) Stokesean hydrodynamics. A formula is obtained for the effective viscosity of such suspensions in the limit of small concentrations. This formula includes the two terms that are found in the 2D version of Einstein's classical result for passive suspensions. To this, the main result of the paper is added, an additional term due to self-propulsion which depends on the physical and geometric properties of the active suspension. This term explains the experimental observation of a decrease in effective viscosity in active suspensions.