Structure and rheology of suspensions of spherical strain-hardening capsules
We investigate the rheology of strain-hardening spherical capsules, from the dilute to
the concentrated regime under a confined shear flow using three-dimensional numerical
simulations. We consider the effect of capillary number, volume fraction and membrane inextensibility on the particle deformation and on the effective suspension viscosity and
normal stress differences of the suspension. The suspension displays a shear-thinning
behaviour that is a characteristic of soft particles such as emulsion droplets, vesicles,
strain-softening capsules and red blood cells.






