Shear-Driven Flow of Athermal, Frictionless, Spherocylinder Suspensions in Two Dimensions: Particle Rotations and Orientational Ordering

We use numerical simulations to study the flow of a bidisperse mixture of athermal, frictionless, soft-core two dimensional spherocylinders driven by a uniform steady-state simple shear applied at a fixed volume and a fixed finite strain rate $\dotγ$. Energy dissipation is via a viscous drag with respect to a uniformly sheared host fluid, giving a simple model for flow in a non-Brownian suspension with Newtonian rheology. Considering a range of packing fractions $ϕ$ and particle asphericities $α$ at small $\dotγ$, we study the angular rotation $\dotθ_i$ and the nematic orientational ordering $\mathbf{S}_2$ of the particles induced by the shear flow, finding a non-monotonic behavior as the packing $ϕ$ is varied. We interpret this non-monotonic behavior as a crossover from a small $ϕ$ region where single-particle-like behavior occurs, to a large $ϕ$ region where the geometry of the dense packing dominates, the reduced free volume inhibits motion, and a random Poisson-like process for particle rotations results. We also argue that the finite nematic ordering $\mathbf{S}_2$ is a consequence of the shearing serving as an ordering field, rather than a result of long-ranged cooperative behavior among the particles. We arrive at these conclusions by consideration of (i) the distribution of waiting times for a particle to rotate by $π$, (ii) the behavior of the system under pure, as compared to simple, shearing, (iii) the relaxation of the nematic order parameter $\mathbf{S}_2$ when perturbed away from the steady state, and (iv) by construction a numerical mean-field model for the rotational motion of a particle. Our results also help to explain the singular behavior observed when taking the $α\to 0$ limit approaching circular disks.

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