PO26 


Poster Session


The rheology of a spherically confined Brownian suspensions


October 17, 2018 (Wednesday) 6:30


Poster Session / Woodway II/III

(Click on name to view author profile)

  1. Sunol, Alp M. (Stanford University, Chemical Engineering)
  2. Zia, Roseanna N. (Stanford University, Chemical Engineering)

(in printed abstract book)
Alp M. Sunol and Roseanna N. Zia
Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, CA 94305-4125


Sunol, Alp M.


Modeling the motion of colloids in spherically confined environments is crucial to understanding the motion of particles inside living cells, bio-reactor droplets, inkjet printing, and more. A key aspect of such motion is the interplay between crowding (particle concentration) and confinement (the size of the enclosing cavity relative to the suspended particles). Here we present the results of our dynamic simulations studies of the osmotic pressure, diffusion, and structure both at equilibrium and away from equilibrium, the latter as a model for intradroplet stirring by heavier (sedimenting) particles, using our Confined Brownian Dynamics computational algorithm. We find an interesting interplay between ‘internal crowding’ (particle volume fraction), confinement-induced crowding, and osmotic pressure that has a satisfying connection to the volume-fraction dependent, anisotropic, spatially heterogeneous diffusion tensor. The sedimentation velocity provides measurement of a spatially heterogeneous, Pe-dependent microviscosity, which we then connect to osmotic pressure and diffusion.