Active Viscoelastic Matter: from Bacterial Drag Reduction to Turbulent Solids

Abstract

A paradigm for internally driven matter is the active nematic liquid crystal, whereby the equations of a conventional nematic are supplemented by a minimal active stress that violates time reversal symmetry. In practice, active fluids may have not only liquid crystalline but also viscoelastic polymer degrees of freedom. Here we explore the resulting interplay by coupling an active nematic to a minimal model of polymer rheology. We find that adding polymer can greatly increase the complexity of spontaneous flow, but can also have calming effects, thereby increasing the net throughput of spontaneous flow along a pipe (a 'drag-reduction' effect). Remarkably, active turbulence can also arise after switching on activity in a sufficiently soft elastomeric solid.

11 pages, 4 figures (supplementary information included); v2 has updated PACS numbers, and a note added with one additional citation; v3 fixes a typo in Eq. 6 and a minor correction to top phase diagram in Fig. 1

References in corpus (6)

• Spontaneous motion in hierarchically assembled active matter
• Meso-scale turbulence in living fluids
• Defect dynamics in active nematics
• Shearing active gels close to the isotropic-nematic transition
• Instabilities and Topological Defects in Active Nematics
• Spontaneous flow states in active nematics: a unified picture

Cited by in corpus (26)

• Active matter
• Computational models for active matter
• Odd elasticity
• Active Turbulence
• Viscoelastic control of spatiotemporal order in bacterial active matter
• Theories of Binary Fluid Mixtures: From Phase-Separation Kinetics to Active Emulsions
• Collective Dynamics of Self-propelled Semiflexible Filaments
• Correlation lengths in hydrodynamic models of active nematics
• Thermodynamics of active field theories: Energetic cost of coupling to reservoirs
• Oriented Active Solids
• Learning the Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Brownian Movies
• Viscoelastic and elastomeric active matter: Linear instability and nonlinear dynamics
• Active matter in a viscoelastic environment
• Fluidization and Active Thinning by Molecular Kinetics in Active Gels
• Nonstationary models for liquid crystals: A fresh mathematical perspective
• Permeation Instabilities in Active, Polar Gels
• Active nematic gels as active relaxing solids
• Active-gel Theory for Multicellular Migration of Polar Cells in the Extra-cellular Matrix
• Self-sustained patchy turbulence in shear-thinning active fluids
• Vortex pattern stabilization in thin films resulting from shear thickening of active suspensions
• Shape Transitions in Network Model of Active Elastic Shells
• Rheologically tuned modes of collective transport in active viscoelastic films
• Active assembly and non-reciprocal dynamics of elastic membranes
• Unified description of viscous, viscoelastic, or elastic thin active films on substrates
• Active viscoelastic nematics with partial degree of order
• Microswimming in viscoelastic fluids