Model hard-sphere dispersions: statistical mechanical theory, simulations, and experiments

The rheological, diffusive and structural behavior of concentrated monodisperse Brownian hard-sphere dispersions in and out of equilibrium are of increasing interest. Experiment and Stokesian Dynamics simulation generally agree for all shear rates, while theoretical scaling arguments for hydrodynamic interactions in concentrated suspensions give encouraging predictions. Both experiment and simulation call into question whether particles behave as perfect hard spheres.