Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
Volume 121, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.018001
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Leverhulme Trust [RPG-2016-147]
- BrisSynBio, a BBSRC/EPSRC Advanced Synthetic Biology Research Centre [BB/L01386X/1]
- Leverhulme Trust International Academic Fellowship [IAF-2017-010]
- BBSRC [BB/L01386X/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We point out unconventional mechanical properties of confined active fluids, such as bacterial suspensions, under shear. Using a minimal model of an active liquid crystal with no free parameters, we predict the existence of a window of bacteria concentration for which a suspension of E. Coli effectively behaves, at steady-state, as a negative viscosity fluid and reach a quantitative agreement with experimental measurements. Our theoretical analysis further shows that a negative apparent viscosity is due to a nonmonotonic local velocity profile, and it is associated with a nonmonotonic stress versus strain rate flow curve. This implies that fixed stress and fixed strain rate ensembles are not equivalent for active fluids.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available