Flow of a viscous nematic fluid around a sphere

TL;DR

This paper derives analytical solutions for the flow around a sphere in a viscous nematic fluid, revealing how anisotropic properties influence flow patterns and microrheology measurements.

Contribution

It provides the first closed-form expressions for flow response in nematic fluids, analyzing anisotropic effects on streamline patterns and microrheology accuracy.

Findings

Effective viscosity approach is valid in rotationally isotropic fluids.

Directional viscosities can be misleading in fluids resisting bending.

Anisotropy causes asymmetric streamline deflections.

Abstract

We analyze the creeping flow generated by a spherical particle moving through a viscous fluid with nematic directional order, in which momentum diffusivity is anisotropic and which opposes resistance to bending. Specifically, we provide closed-form analytical expressions for the response function, i.e. the equivalent to Stokes's drag formula for nematic fluids. Particular attention is given to the rotationally pseudo-isotropic condition defined by zero resistance to bending, and to the strain pseudo-isotropic condition defined by isotropic momentum diffusivity. We find the former to be consistent with the rheology of biopolymer networks and the latter to be closer to the rheology of nematic liquid crystals. These "pure" anisotropic conditions are used to benchmark existing particle tracking microrheology methods that provide effective directional viscosities by applying Stokes's drag law separately in different directions. We find that the effective viscosity approach is phenomenologically justified in rotationally isotropic fluids, although it leads to significant errors in the estimated viscosity coefficients. On the other hand, the mere concept of directional effective viscosities is found to be misleading in fluids that oppose an appreciable resistance to bending. Finally, we observe that anisotropic momentum diffusivity leads to asymmetric streamline patterns displaying enhanced (reduced) streamline deflection in the directions of lower (higher) diffusivity. The bending resistance of the fluid is found to modulate the asymmetry of streamline deflection. In some cases, the combined effects of both anisotropy mechanisms leads to streamline patterns that converge towards the sphere.