5:05 PM – 5:25 PM, Tuesday, October 16, 2018; Room: 114 McAllister bldg.

Focusing of active rods in a converging flows

Misha Potomkin, The Pennsylvania State University, USA

Recently synthesized bimetallic rod-like microparticles capable of autonomous motion provide many promising applications, for example in 3D printing. My talk is devoted to the problem of extrusion of such rods, termed active rods, through finite channels and nozzles. First, I will present the model of active rods swimming in a convergent fluid flow in a trapezoid nozzle with no-slip walls. Next, I will discuss main features of trajectories of active rods in confined domains, such as wall accumulation and upstream swimming. Finally, I will show main outcomes of extensive Monte Carlo simulations for this model. Specifically, out main results are (i) non-trivial focusing of active rods depending on physical and geometrical parameters, (ii) dependence on the flow rate of the extrusion rate, i.e., the probability that an active rod reaches the outlet. I will also show that the convergent component of the background flow leads to stability of both downstream and upstream swimming at the centerline. The stability of downstream swimming enhances focusing, and the stability of upstream swimming enables rheotaxis in the bulk. This is a joint work with Andreas Kaiser, Leonid Berlyand and Igor Aronson.

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