Eur. Phys. J. E (2012) 35: 98
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2012-12098-5

Regular Article

Bulk rheology and microrheology of active fluids

¹ SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Mayfield Road, EH9 3JZ, Edinburgh, UK
² EPCC, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Mayfield Road, EH9 3JZ, Edinburgh, UK

^* e-mail: dmarendu@ph.ed.ac.uk

Received: 10 April 2012
Revised: 14 August 2012
Accepted: 24 August 2012
Published online: 4 October 2012

Abstract

We simulate macroscopic shear experiments in active nematics and compare them with microrheology simulations where a spherical probe particle is dragged through an active fluid. In both cases we define an effective viscosity: in the case of bulk shear simulations this is the ratio between shear stress and shear rate, whereas in the microrheology case it involves the ratio between the friction coefficient and the particle size. We show that this effective viscosity, rather than being solely a property of the active fluid, is affected by the way chosen to measure it, and strongly depends on details such as the anchoring conditions at the probe surface and on both the system size and the size of the probe particle.