The effect of shear flow on ordered suspensions of active particles

ORAL

Abstract

We explore the stability of orientationally ordered phases of a suspension of active particles, such as bacteria or motor- microtubule extracts, using a set of coarse grained hydrodynamic equations. While the orientationally ordered phase is linearly unstable, we show that it can be stabilised by the imposition of an external shear. We study the nonlinear response including shear banding in such active suspensions when subjected to steady or oscillating shear.

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Authors

  • Sudipto Muhuri

  • Madan Rao

    • Raman Research Institute and National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore
    • Raman Research Institute, Bangalore 560 080, India

  • Sriram Ramaswamy

    • Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
    • Indian Institute of Science