Active particles in complex fluids

Gwynn Elfring

University of British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

Active particles are self-driven objects, biological or otherwise, which convert stored or ambient energy into systematic motion. The motion of small active particles in Newtonian fluids has received considerable attention, with interest ranging from phoretic propulsion to biological locomotion, whereas studies on active bodies immersed in complex fluids are comparatively scarce. In this talk I will discuss a theoretical formalism for understanding the motion of active particles in fluids of arbitrary rheology and then discuss the effects of viscosity gradients, viscoelasticity and shear-thinning rheology in the context of biological locomotion and the propulsion of colloidal Janus particles.

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