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Flow of a viscous nematic fluid around a sphere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2013

Manuel Gómez-González  and
Juan C. del Álamo
Manuel Gómez-González*
Affiliation:
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0411, USA
Juan C. del Álamo
Affiliation:
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0411, USA Institute for Engineering in Medicine, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0435, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: manu@ucsd.edu
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Abstract

We analyse the creeping flow generated by a spherical particle moving through a viscous fluid with nematic directional order, in which momentum diffusivity is anisotropic and which opposes resistance to bending. Specifically, we provide closed-form analytical expressions for the response function, i.e. the equivalent to Stokes’s drag formula for nematic fluids. Particular attention is given to the rotationally pseudo-isotropic condition defined by zero resistance to bending, and to the strain pseudo-isotropic condition defined by isotropic momentum diffusivity. We find the former to be consistent with the rheology of biopolymer networks and the latter to be closer to the rheology of nematic liquid crystals. These ‘pure’ anisotropic conditions are used to benchmark existing particle tracking microrheology methods that provide effective directional viscosities by applying Stokes’s drag law separately in different directions. We find that the effective viscosity approach is phenomenologically justified in rotationally isotropic fluids, although it leads to significant errors in the estimated viscosity coefficients. On the other hand, the mere concept of directional effective viscosities is found to be misleading in fluids that oppose an appreciable resistance to bending. Finally, we observe that anisotropic momentum diffusivity leads to asymmetric streamline patterns displaying enhanced (reduced) streamline deflection in the directions of lower (higher) diffusivity. The bending resistance of the fluid is found to modulate the asymmetry of streamline deflection. In some cases, the combined effects of both anisotropy mechanisms leads to streamline patterns that converge towards the sphere.

JFM classification

Biological Fluid Dynamics: Biological Fluid Dynamics Complex Fluids: Liquid crystals Non-Newtonian Flows: Rheology
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 725 , 25 June 2013 , pp. 299 - 331
Copyright
©2013 Cambridge University Press 

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