Shear-induced diffusion in dilute suspensions of charged colloids

We propose a model for the nonequilibrium enhancement of colloidal self-diffusion in an externally imposed shear flow in charged systems. The diffusion enhancement is calculated in terms of electrostatic, two-body interactions between the particles in shear flow. In the high-shear rate, low-volume fraction limit in which the model is valid, we compare these calculations to the experiments of Qiu et at. [PRL 61, 2554 (1988)] and simulations of Chakrabarti et al. [PRE 50, R3326 (1994)] and find good agreement on scaling and magnitude to within experimental uncertainty of the electrostatic parameters.