arXiv subjects

Gwynn J. Elfring

Publications and source records attributed to Gwynn J. Elfring.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Rheology of Wormlike Micellar Gels Formed By Long-Chained Zwitterionic Surfactants

Long-chained surfactant solutions have found widespread use in the oil and gas industry due to a host of attractive properties. In this paper, we characterize one such commercially used viscoelastic surfactant that forms a wormlike micellar gel at room temperature and a viscoelastic solution at higher temperatures. We probe both states by conducting linear and nonlinear rheological tests and analyze their behaviour under the framework of micellar rheology. Our study outlines departure from behaviour exhibited by more conventional micellar systems and uncovers interesting dynamics like shear-induced fracture and possible shear-banding in these materials. In doing so we provide a detailed understanding of a novel class of wormlike micellar solutions

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2021

Active particles in linear viscoelastic fluids and the scallop theorem

We derive a general formula for the inertialess dynamics of active particles in linear viscoelastic fluids by means of a modified reciprocal theorem. We then demonstrate that force-free active particles in Maxwell-like linear viscoelastic fluids with no retardation have exactly the same dynamics as in Newtonian fluids. In contrast, active particles in Jeffreys-like fluids with retardation can display markedly different dynamics, including net motion under reciprocal actuation thereby breaking the scallop theorem.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

On the hydrodynamics of active particles in viscosity gradients

In this work, we analyze the motion of an active particle, modeled as a spherical squirmer, in linearly varying viscosity fields. In general, the presence of a particle will disturb a background viscosity field and the disturbance generated depends on the boundary conditions imposed by the particle on the viscosity field. We find that, irrespective of the details of the disturbance, active squirmer-type particle tend to align down viscosity gradients (negative viscotaxis). However, the rate of rotation and the swimming speed along the gradient do depend on the details of the interaction of the particle and the background viscosity field. In addition, we explore the relative importance on the dynamics of the local viscosity changes on the surface of active particles versus the (nonlocal) changes in the flow field due to spatially varying viscosity (from that of a homogeneous fluid). We show that the relative importance of local versus nonlocal effects depends crucially on the boundary conditions imposed by the particle on the field. This work demonstrates the dangers in neglecting the disturbance of the background viscosity caused by the particle as well as in using the local effects alone to capture the particle motion.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Active Stokesian Dynamics

Since its development, Stokesian Dynamics has been a leading approach for the dynamic simulation of suspensions of particles at arbitrary concentrations with full hydrodynamic interactions. Although originally developed for the simulation of passive particle suspensions, the Stokesian Dynamics framework is equally well suited to the analysis and dynamic simulation of suspensions of active particles, as we elucidate here. We show how the reciprocal theorem can be used to formulate the exact dynamics for a suspension of arbitrary active particles and then show how the Stokesian Dynamics method provides a rigorous way to approximate and compute the dynamics of dense active suspensions where many-body hydrodynamic interactions are important.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Jeffery orbits in shear-thinning fluids

We investigate the dynamics of a prolate spheroid in a shear flow of a shear-thinning Carreau fluid. The motion of a prolate particle is developed analytically for asymptotically weak shear thinning and then integrated numerically. We find that shear-thinning rheology does not lift the degeneracy of Jeffery orbits observed in Newtonian fluids but the instantaneous rate of rotation and trajectories of the orbits are modified. Qualitatively, shear thinning has a similar effect to elongating the particle in a Newtonian fluid. The period of rotation increases as the particle slows down more when aligned with the flow due to a reduction of shear stresses. Unlike Jeffery orbits in Newtonian fluids, in shear-thinning fluids the period of orbits depends on the specific trajectory (or initial orientation of the particle).

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Active particles in viscosity gradients

Microswimmers in nature often experience spatial gradients of viscosity. In this work we develop theoretical results for the dynamics of active particles, biological or otherwise, swimming through viscosity gradients. We model the active particles using the squirmer model, and show how viscosity gradients lead to viscotaxis for squirmers, and how the effects of viscosity gradients depend on the swimming gait of the microswimmers. We also show how such gradients in viscosity can be used to control active particles and suggest a mechanism to sort them based on their swimming style.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

A note on higher order perturbative corrections to squirming speed in weakly viscoelastic fluids

Many microorganisms swim in fluids with complex rheological properties. Although much is now understood about motion of these swimmers in Newtonian fluids, the understanding is still developing in non-Newtonian fluids --- this understanding is crucial for various biomimetic and biomedical applications. Here we study a common model for microswimmers, the squirmer model, in two common viscoelastic fluid models, the Giesekus fluid model and fluids of differential type (grade three), at zero Reynolds number. Through this article we address a recent commentary that discussed suitable values of parameters in these model and pointed at higher order viscoelastic effects on the squirming motion.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Two-sphere swimmers in viscoelastic fluids

We examine swimmers comprising of two rigid spheres which oscillate periodically along their axis of symmetry, considering both when the oscillation is in phase and anti-phase, and study the effects of fluid viscoelasticity on their net motion. These swimmers both display reciprocal motion in a Newtonian fluid and hence no net swimming is achieved over one cycle. Conversely, we find that when the two spheres are of different sizes, the effect of viscoelasticity acts to propel the swimmers forward in the direction of the smaller sphere. Finally, we compare the motion of rigid spheres oscillating in viscoelastic fluids with elastic spheres in Newtonian fluids where we find similar results.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Dynamics of poroelastocapillary rise

A wetting liquid is driven through a thin gap due to surface tension and when the gap boundaries are elastic, the liquid deforms the gap as it rises. But when the fluid boundaries are also permeable (or poroelastic), the liquid can permeate the boundaries as the fluid rises and change their properties, for example by swelling and softening, thereby altering the dynamics of the rise. In this paper, we study the dynamics of capillary rise between two poroelastic sheets to understand the effects of boundary permeability and softening. We find that if the bending rigidity of sheets is reduced, due to liquid permeation, the sheets coalesce faster compared to the case of impermeable sheets. We show that as a direct consequence of this faster coalescence, the volume of fluid captured between the sheets can be significantly lower.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Higher-order force moments of active particles

Active particles moving through fluids generate disturbance flows due to their activity. For simplicity, the induced flow field is often modeled by the leading terms in a far-field approximation of the Stokes equations, whose coefficients are the force, torque and stresslet (zeroth and first-order force moments) of the active particle. This level of approximation is quite useful, but may also fail to predict more complex behaviors that are observed experimentally. In this study, to provide a better approximation, we evaluate the contribution of the second-order force moments to the flow field and, by reciprocal theorem, present explicit formulas for the stresslet dipole, rotlet dipole and potential dipole for an arbitrarily-shaped active particle. As examples of this method, we derive modified Faxén laws for active spherical particles and resolve higher-order moments for active rod-like particles.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Dynamics and rheology of particles in shear-thinning fluids

Particle motion in non-Newtonian fluids can be markedly different than in Newtonian fluids. Here we look at the change in dynamics for a few problems involving rigid spherical particles in shear-thinning fluids in the absence of inertia. We give analytical formulas for sedimenting spheres, obtained by means of the reciprocal theorem, and demonstrate quantitively differences in comparison to a Newtonian fluid. We also calculate the first correction to the suspension viscosity, the Einstein viscosity, for a dilute suspension of spheres in a weakly shear-thinning fluid.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Autophoretic locomotion in weakly viscoelastic fluids at finite Péclet number

In this work, we numerically investigate the dynamics of a self-propelling autophoretic Janus particle in a weakly viscoelastic fluid. The self-propulsion is achieved by an asymmetry in the properties of the surface of the Janus particle that drives a surface slip velocity and bulk flow. Here we investigate the effect of viscoelasticity on this advection-diffusion problem over a range of Péclet and Damköhler numbers. Particles are found to swim faster, or slower, in viscoelastic fluids, and we show how reaction and diffusion rates affect the viscoelastic stresses that lead to changes in propulsion.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Force moments of an active particle in a complex fluid

A generalized reciprocal theorem is formulated for the motion and hydrodynamic force moments of an active particle in an arbitrary background flow of a (weakly nonlinear) complex fluid. This formalism includes as special cases a number of previous calculations of the motion of both passive and active particles in Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

An active particle in a complex fluid

In this work, we study active particles with prescribed surface velocities in non-Newtonian fluids. We employ the reciprocal theorem to obtain the velocity of an active spherical particle with an arbitrary axisymmetric slip-velocity in an otherwise quiescent second-order fluid. We then determine how the motion of a diffusiophoretic Janus particle is affected by complex fluid rheology, namely viscoelasticity and shear-thinning viscosity, compared to a Newtonian fluid, assuming a fixed slip-velocity. We find that a Janus particle may go faster or slower in a viscoelastic fluid, but is always slower in a shear-thinning fluid as compared to a Newtonian fluid.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Propulsion via flexible flapping in granular media

Biological locomotion in nature is often achieved by the interaction between a flexible body and its surrounding medium. The interaction of a flexible body with granular media is less understood compared with viscous fluids partially due to its complex rheological properties. In this work we explore the effect of flexibility on granular propulsion by considering a simple mechanical model where a rigid rod is connected to a torsional spring that is under a displacement actuation using a granular resistive force theory. Through a combined numerical and asymptotic investigation, we characterize the propulsive dynamics of such a flexible flapper in relation to the actuation amplitude and spring stiffness and compare these dynamics with those observed in a viscous fluid. In addition, we demonstrate that the maximum possible propulsive force can be obtained in the steady propulsion limit with a finite spring stiffness and large actuation amplitude. These results may apply to the development of synthetic locomotive systems that exploit flexibility to move through complex terrestrial media.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

An elastic two-sphere swimmer in Stokes flow

Swimming at low Reynolds number in Newtonian fluids is only possible through non-reciprocal body deformations due to the kinematic reversibility of the Stokes equations. We consider here a model swimmer consisting of two linked spheres, wherein one sphere is rigid and the other an incompressible neo-Hookean solid. The two spheres are connected by a rod which changes its length periodically. We show that the deformations of the body are non-reciprocal despite the reversible actuation and hence, the elastic two-sphere swimmer propels forward. Our results indicate that even weak elastic deformations of a body can affect locomotion and may be exploited in designing artificial microswimmers.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2016

Maximizing propulsive thrust of a driven filament at low Reynolds number via variable flexibility

At low Reynolds numbers the locomotive capability of a body can be dramatically hindered by the absence of inertia. In this work, we show how propulsive performance in this regime can be significantly enhanced by employing spatially varying flexibility. As a prototypical example, we consider the propulsive thrust generated by a filament periodically driven at one end. The rigid case leads to zero propulsion, as so constrained by Purcell's scallop theorem, while for uniform filaments there exists a bending stiffness maximizing the propulsive force at a given frequency; here we demonstrate explicitly how considerable further improvement (greater than 37% enhancement compared with the optimal uniform stiffness) can be achieved by simply varying the stiffness along the filament. The optimal flexibility distribution is strongly configuration-dependent: while increasing the flexibility towards the tail-end enhances the propulsion of a clamped filament, for a hinged filament decreasing the flexibility towards the tail-end is instead favorable. The results reveal new design principles for maximizing propulsion at low Reynolds numbers, potentially useful for developing synthetic micro-swimmers requiring large propulsive force for various biomedical applications.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2016

The effect of gait on swimming in viscoelastic fluids

In this paper, we give formulas for the swimming of simplified two-dimensional bodies in complex fluids using the reciprocal theorem. By way of these formulas we calculate the swimming velocity due to small-amplitude deformations on the simplest of these bodies, a two-dimensional sheet, to explore general conditions on the swimming gait under which the sheet may move faster, or slower, in a viscoelastic fluid compared to a Newtonian fluid. We show that in general, for small amplitude deformations, a speed increase can only be realized by multiple deformation modes in contrast to slip flows. Additionally, we show that a change in swimming speed is directly due to a change in thrust generated by the swimmer.

physics.flu-dyn↗