Odd Response-Induced Phase Separation of Active Spinners.

Due to the breaking of time-reversal and parity symmetries and the presence of non-conservative microscopic interactions, active spinner fluids and solids respectively exhibit nondissipative odd viscosity and nonstorage odd elasticity, engendering phenomena unattainable in traditional passive or active systems. Here, we study the effects of odd viscosity and elasticity on phase behaviors of active spinner systems. We find the spinner fluid under a simple shear experiences an anisotropic gas-liquid phase separation driven by the odd-viscosity stress.

Colloidal gelation with non-sticky particles.

Colloidal gels are widely applied in industry due to their rheological character-no flow takes place below the yield stress. Such property enables gels to maintain uniform distribution in practical formulations; otherwise, solid components may quickly sediment without the support of gel matrix. Compared with pure gels of sticky colloids, therefore, the composites of gel and non-sticky inclusions are more commonly encountered in reality.

How surface roughness affects the interparticle interactions at a liquid interface.

Hypothesis: Colloidal particles can be trapped at a liquid interface, which reduces the energetically costly interfacial area. Once at an interface, colloids undergo various self-assemblies and structural transitions due to shape-dependent interparticle interactions. Particles with rough surfaces receive increasing attention and have been applied in material design, such as Pickering emulsions and shear-thickening materials.

Shear Jamming and Fragility of Suspensions in a Continuum Model with Elastic Constraints.

Under an applied traction, highly concentrated suspensions of solid particles in fluids can turn from a state in which they flow to a state in which they counteract the traction as an elastic solid: a shear-jammed state. Remarkably, the suspension can turn back to the flowing state simply by inverting the traction. A tensorial model is presented and tested in paradigmatic cases.

Force transmission and the order parameter of shear thickening.

The origin of the abrupt shear thickening observed in some dense suspensions has been recently argued to be a transition from frictionless (lubricated) to frictional interactions between immersed particles. The Wyart-Cates rheological model, built on this scenario, introduced the concept of the fraction of frictional contacts f as the relevant order parameter for the shear thickening transition. Central to the model is the "equation-of-state" relating f to the applied stress σ, which is directly linked to the distribution of the normal components of non-hydrodynamic interparticle forces.

Crystallization kinetics of binary colloidal monolayers.

Experiments and simulations are used to study the kinetics of crystal growth in a mixture of magnetic and nonmagnetic particles suspended in ferrofluid. The growth process is quantified using both a bond order parameter and a mean domain size parameter. The largest single crystals obtained in experiments consist of approximately 1000 particles and form if the area fraction is held between 65-70% and the field strength is kept in the range of 8.

Discontinuous shear thickening in Brownian suspensions by dynamic simulation.

Dynamic particle-scale numerical simulations are used to show that the shear thickening observed in dense colloidal, or Brownian, suspensions is of a similar nature to that observed in noncolloidal suspensions, i.e., a stress-induced transition from a flow of lubricated near-contacting particles to a flow of a frictionally contacting network of particles.

Nonmonotonic flow curves of shear thickening suspensions.

The discontinuous shear thickening (DST) of dense suspensions is a remarkable phenomenon in which the viscosity can increase by several orders of magnitude at a critical shear rate. It has the appearance of a first-order phase transition between two hypothetical "states" that we have recently identified as Stokes flows with lubricated or frictional contacts, respectively. Here we extend the analogy further by means of stress-controlled simulations and show the existence of a nonmonotonic steady-state flow curve analogous to a nonmonotonic equation of state.

Discontinuous shear thickening of frictional hard-sphere suspensions.

Discontinuous shear thickening (DST) observed in many dense athermal suspensions has proven difficult to understand and to reproduce by numerical simulation. By introducing a numerical scheme including both relevant hydrodynamic interactions and granularlike contacts, we show that contact friction is essential for having DST. Above a critical volume fraction, we observe the existence of two states: a low viscosity, contactless (hence, frictionless) state, and a high viscosity frictional shear jammed state.

Restructuring of colloidal aggregates in shear flow: coupling interparticle contact models with Stokesian dynamics.

A method to couple interparticle contact models with Stokesian dynamics (SD) is introduced to simulate colloidal aggregates under flow conditions. The contact model mimics both the elastic and plastic behavior of the cohesive connections between particles within clusters. Owing to this, clusters can maintain their structures under low stress while restructuring or even breakage may occur under sufficiently high stress conditions.

Hydrodynamic stress on small colloidal aggregates in shear flow using Stokesian dynamics.

The hydrodynamic properties of rigid fractal aggregates have been investigated by considering their motion in shear flow in the Stokesian dynamics approach. Due to the high fluid viscosity and small particle inertia of colloidal systems, the total force and torque applied to the aggregate reach equilibrium values in a short time. Obtaining equilibrating motions for a number of independent samples, one can extract the average hydrodynamic characteristics of the given fractal aggregates.