arXiv subjects

Arnold J. T. M. Mathijssen

Publications and source records attributed to Arnold J. T. M. Mathijssen.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

State diagram of a three-sphere microswimmer in a channel

Geometric confinements are frequently encountered in soft matter systems and in particular significantly alter the dynamics of swimming microorganisms in viscous media. Surface-related effects on the motility of microswimmers can lead to important consequences in a large number of biological systems, such as biofilm formation, bacterial adhesion and microbial activity. On the basis of low-Reynolds-number hydrodynamics, we explore the state diagram of a three-sphere microswimmer under channel confinement in a slit geometry and fully characterize the swimming behavior and trajectories for neutral swimmers, puller- and pusher-type swimmers. While pushers always end up trapped at the channel walls, neutral swimmers and pullers may further perform a gliding motion and maintain a stable navigation along the channel. We find that the resulting dynamical system exhibits a supercritical pitchfork bifurcation in which swimming in the mid-plane becomes unstable beyond a transition channel height while two new stable limit cycles or fixed points that are symmetrically disposed with respect to the channel mid-height emerge. Additionally, we show that an accurate description of the averaged swimming velocity and rotation rate in a channel can be captured analytically using the method of hydrodynamic images, provided that the swimmer size is much smaller than the channel height.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2016

Hydrodynamics of Micro-swimmers in Films

One of the principal mechanisms by which surfaces and interfaces affect microbial life is by perturbing the hydrodynamic flows generated by swimming. By summing a recursive series of image systems we derive a numerically tractable approximation to the three-dimensional flow fields of a Stokeslet (point force) within a viscous film between a parallel no-slip surface and no-shear interface and, from this Green's function, we compute the flows produced by a force- and torque-free micro-swimmer. We also extend the exact solution of Liron & Mochon (1976) to the film geometry, which demonstrates that the image series gives a satisfactory approximation to the swimmer flow fields if the film is sufficiently thick compared to the swimmer size, and we derive the swimmer flows in the thin-film limit. Concentrating on the thick film case, we find that the dipole moment induces a bias towards swimmer accumulation at the no-slip wall rather than the water-air interface, but that higher-order multipole moments can oppose this. Based on the analytic predictions we propose an experimental method to find the multipole coefficient that induces circular swimming trajectories, allowing one to analytically determine the swimmer's three-dimensional position under a microscope.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2016

Understanding the Onset of Oscillatory Swimming in Microchannels

Self-propelled colloids (swimmers) in confining geometries follow trajectories determined by hydrodynamic interactions with the bounding surfaces. However, typically these interactions are ignored or truncated to lowest order. We demonstrate that higher-order hydrodynamic moments cause rod-like swimmers to follow oscillatory trajectories in quiescent fluid between two parallel plates, using a combination of lattice-Boltzmann simulations and far-field calculations. This behavior occurs even far from the confining walls and does not require lubrication results. We show that a swimmer's hydrodynamic quadrupole moment is crucial to the onset of the oscillatory trajectories. This insight allows us to develop a simple model for the dynamics near the channel center based on these higher hydrodynamic moments, and suggests opportunities for trajectory-based experimental characterization of swimmers' hydrodynamic properties.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2016

Lattice-Boltzmann Hydrodynamics of Anisotropic Active Matter

A plethora of active matter models exist that describe the behavior of self-propelled particles (or swimmers), both with and without hydrodynamics. However, there are few studies that consider shape-anisotropic swimmers and include hydrodynamic interactions. Here, we introduce a simple method to simulate self-propelled colloids interacting hydrodynamically in a viscous medium using the lattice-Boltzmann technique. Our model is based on raspberry-type viscous coupling and a force/counter-force formalism which ensures that the system is force free. We consider several anisotropic shapes and characterize their hydrodynamic multipolar flow field. We demonstrate that shape-anisotropy can lead to the presence of a strong quadrupole and octupole moments, in addition to the principle dipole moment. The ability to simulate and characterize these higher-order moments will prove crucial for understanding the behavior of model swimmers in confining geometries.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2015

Upstream swimming in microbiological flows

Interactions between microorganisms and their complex flowing environments are essential in many biological systems. We develop a model for microswimmer dynamics in non-Newtonian Poiseuille flows. We predict that swimmers in shear-thickening (-thinning) fluids migrate upstream more (less) quickly than in Newtonian fluids and demonstrate that viscoelastic normal stress differences reorient swimmers causing them to migrate upstream at the centreline, in contrast to well-known boundary accumulation in quiescent Newtonian fluids. Based on these observations, we suggest a sorting mechanism to select microbes by swimming speed.

cond-mat.soft↗