Transport properties of monodisperse and bidisperse hard-sphere colloidal suspensions from multiparticle collision dynamics simulations

TL;DR

This study uses multiparticle collision dynamics simulations to analyze transport properties like viscosity, diffusion, and sedimentation in monodisperse and bidisperse colloidal suspensions, providing reference data and validating the simulation method.

Contribution

It demonstrates the effectiveness of multiparticle collision dynamics in modeling size-diverse colloidal suspensions and offers new reference data for their transport properties.

Findings

Simulation results agree with prior literature for monodisperse suspensions.

Sedimentation velocities in bidisperse suspensions match previous studies.

Direction reversal observed for smaller particles at diameter ratio 4.

Abstract

The shear viscosities, long-time self-diffusion coefficients, and sedimentation velocities in monodisperse and bidisperse hard-sphere colloidal suspensions are simulated for volume fractions up to 0.40 using multiparticle collision dynamics with a discrete particle model. The bidisperse suspensions have diameter ratios of 2 and 4 and equal amounts of each particle by volume. All measured properties for monodisperse suspensions are found to be in good agreement with prior literature; however, they highlight the sensitivity of the simulation method to discretization effects. The sedimentation velocities for the bidisperse suspensions are also in reasonable agreement with prior literature, including direction reversal for the smaller particles when the diameter ratio is 4. This work provides reference data for transport properties of colloidal suspensions and establishes the suitability of multiparticle collision dynamics for modeling suspensions of particles with different sizes.