arXiv subjects

Sébastien Michelin

Publications and source records attributed to Sébastien Michelin.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Steady translation of a chemically active viscous drop along a rigid wall

Chemically active drops release a chemical solute, gradients in whose concentration cause interfacial flows that advect the emitted solute. This non-linear coupling between solute distribution and fluid flow causes the drop to swim via an advective instability, if the system's Peclet number Pe--ratio of advective-to-diffusive solute transport--is larger than a finite threshold. Theoretical analyses often model active drops as diffusiophoresis-driven active particles, primarily to simplify the implementation of boundary conditions at the drop surface. However, physical insights about drop motion that rely on this simplification risk having limited applicability to fluid drops, especially when the drop is interacting chemo-hydrodynamically with its environment. Towards this, we study here the translation of a chemically active viscous drop parallel to a rigid wall, as an example of a common experimental configuration. We consider a propulsion mechanism where the drop swims due to interfacial Marangoni stresses and diffusiophoretic flows, and compare our results to those of the ''isotropic active particle'' model, to examine the validity of the latter. Our analysis shows that, for the same confining force, a less viscous drop swims closer to the wall than a more viscous drop. This results in faster swimming, due to stronger concentration gradients driving the drop's motion. It is also shown that for moderate Pe, the swimming speed of the drop depends weakly on its mobility ratio (relative strength of diffusiophoretic and Marangoni flows). This weak dependence provides a quantitative justification for studying diffusiophoresis-driven active particles to infer the motion of Marangoni-stress-driven active drops.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2025

Flow associated with Lighthill's elongated-body theory

The hydrodynamic forces acting on an undulating swimming fish consist of two components: a drag-based resistive force and a reactive force originating from the necessary acceleration of an added mass of water. Lighthill's elongated-body theory, based on potential flow, provides a framework for calculating this reactive force. By leveraging the high aspect ratio of most fish, the theory simplifies the problem into a series of independent two-dimensional slices of fluids along the fish's body, which exchange momentum with the body and neighbouring slices. Using momentum conservation arguments, Lighthill's theory predicts the total thrust generated by an undulating fish, based solely on the dimensions and kinematics of its caudal fin. However, the assumption of independent slices has led to the common misconception that the flow produced lacks a longitudinal component. In this paper, we revisit Lighthill's theory, offering a modern reinterpretation using essential singularities of potential flows. We then extend it to predict the full three-dimensional flow field induced by the fish's body motion. Our results compare favourably with numerical simulations of realistic fish geometries.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Colloidal bubble propulsion mediated through viscous flows

Bubble-propelled catalytic colloids stand out as a uniquely efficient design for artificial controllable micromachines, but so far lack a general theoretical framework that explains the physics of their propulsion. Here we develop a combined diffusive and hydrodynamic theory of bubble growth near a spherical catalytic colloid, that allows us to explain the underlying mechanism and the influence of environmental and material parameters. We identify two dimensionless groups, related to colloidal activity and the background fluid, that govern a saddle-node bifurcation of the bubble growth dynamics, and calculate the generated flows analytically for both slip and no slip boundary conditions on the bubble. We finish with a discussion of the assumptions and predictions of our model in the context of existing experimental results, and conclude that some of the observed behaviour, notably the ratchet-like gait, stems from peculiarities of the experimental setup rather than fundamental physics of the propulsive mechanism.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Self-propulsion in 2D Confinement: Phoretic and Hydrodynamic Interactions

Chemically active Janus particles generate tangential concentration gradients along their surface for self-propulsion. Although this is well studied in unbounded domains, the analysis in biologically relevant environments such as confinements is scarce. In this work, we study the motion of a Janus sphere in weak confinement. The particle is placed at an arbitrary location, with an arbitrary orientation between the two walls. Using the method of reflections, we study the effect of confining planar boundaries on the phoretic and hydrodynamic interactions, and their consequence on the Janus particle dynamics. The dynamical trajectories are analyzed using phase diagrams for different surface coverage of activity and solute-particle interactions. In addition to near wall states such as `sliding' and `hovering', we demonstrate that accounting for two planar boundaries reveals two new states: channel-spanning oscillations and damped oscillations around the centerline, which were characterized as `scattering' or `reflection' by earlier analyses on single-wall interactions. Using phase diagrams, we highlight the differences in inert-facing and active-facing Janus particles. We also compare the dynamics of Janus particles with squirmers for contrasting the chemical interactions with hydrodynamic effects. Insights from the current work suggest that biological and artificial swimmers sense their surroundings through long-ranged interactions, that can be modified by altering the surface properties.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2020

Slender Phoretic Theory of chemically active filaments

Artificial microswimmers, or "microbots" have the potential to revolutionise non-invasive medicine and microfluidics. Microbots that are powered by self-phoretic mechanisms, such as Janus particles, often harness a solute fuel in their environment. Traditionally, self-phoretic particles are point-like, but slender phoretic rods have become an increasingly prevalent design. While there has been substantial interest in creating efficient asymptotic theories for slender phoretic rods, hitherto such theories have been restricted to straight rods with axisymmetric patterning. However, modern manufacturing methods will soon allow fabrication of slender phoretic filaments with complex three-dimensional shape. In this paper, we develop a slender body theory for the solute of self-diffusiophoretic filaments of arbitrary three-dimensional shape and patterning. We demonstrate analytically that, unlike other slender body theories, first-order azimuthal variations arising from curvature and confinement can have a leading order contribution to the swimming kinematics.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Spontaneous onset of convection in a uniform phoretic channel

Phoretic mechanisms, whereby gradients of chemical solutes induce surface-driven flows, have recently been used to generate directed propulsion of patterned colloidal particles. When the chemical solutes diffuse slowly, an instability further provides active but isotropic particles with a route to self-propulsion by spontaneously breaking the symmetry of the solute distribution. Here we show theoretically that, in a mechanism analogous to Bénard-Marangoni convection, phoretic phenomena can create spontaneous and self-sustained wall-driven mixing flows within a straight, chemically-uniform active channel. Such spontaneous flows do not result in any net pumping for a uniform channel but greatly modify the distribution of transport of the chemical solute. The instability is predicted to occur for a solute Péclet number above a critical value and for a band of finite perturbation wavenumbers. We solve the perturbation problem analytically to characterize the instability, and use both steady and unsteady numerical computations of the full nonlinear transport problem to capture the long-time coupled dynamics of the solute and flow within the channel.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Collisions and rebounds of chemically-active droplets

Active droplets swim as a result of the nonlinear advective coupling of the distribution of chemical species they consume or release with the Marangoni flows created by their non-uniform surface distribution. Most existing models focus on the self-propulsion of a single droplet in an unbounded fluid, which arises when diffusion is slow enough (i.e. beyond a critical Péclet number, $\mbox{Pe}_c$). Despite its experimental relevance, the coupled dynamics of multiple droplets and/or collision with a wall remains mostly unexplored. Using a novel approach based on a moving fitted bispherical grid, the fully-coupled nonlinear dynamics of the chemical solute and flow fields are solved here to characterise in detail the axisymmetric collision of an active droplet with a rigid wall (or with a second droplet). The dynamics is strikingly different depending on the convective-to-diffusive transport ratio, $\mbox{Pe}$: near the self-propulsion threshold (moderate $\mbox{Pe}$), the rebound dynamics are set by chemical interactions and are well captured by asymptotic analysis; in contrast, for larger $\mbox{Pe}$, a complex and nonlinear combination of hydrodynamic and chemical effects set the detailed dynamics, including a closer approach to the wall and a velocity plateau shortly after the rebound of the droplet. The rebound characteristics, i.e. minimum distance and duration, are finally fully characterised in terms of $\mbox{Pe}$.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

No net motion for oscillating near-spheres at low Reynolds numbers

We investigate the flow around an oscillating nearly-spherical particle at low, yet non-vanishing, Reynolds numbers, and the potential resulting locomotion. We analytically demonstrate that no net motion can arise up to order one in Re and order one in the asphericity parameter, regardless of the particle's shape. Therefore, geometry-induced acoustic streaming propulsion, if any, must arise at higher order.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Collective dissolution of microbubbles

A microscopic bubble of soluble gas always dissolves in finite time in an under-saturated fluid. This diffusive process is driven by the difference between the gas concentration near the bubble, whose value is governed by the internal pressure through Henry's law, and the concentration in the far field. The presence of neighbouring bubbles can significantly slow down this process by increasing the effective background concentration and reducing the diffusing flux of dissolved gas experienced by each bubble. We develop theoretical modelling of such diffusive shielding process in the case of small microbubbles whose internal pressure is dominated by Laplace pressure. We first use an exact semi-analytical solution to capture the case of two bubbles, analyse in detail the shielding effect and show that hydrodynamic effects are mostly negligible except in the case of almost-touching bubbles. In order to tackle the case of multiple bubbles, we then derive and validate two analytical approximate yet generic frameworks, first using the method of reflections and then by proposing a self-consistent continuum description. Using both modelling frameworks, we examine the dissolution of regular 1D, 2D and 3D bubble lattices. Bubbles located at the edge of the lattices dissolve first, while innermost bubbles benefit from the diffusive shielding effect, leading to the inward propagation of a dissolution front within the lattice. We show that diffusive shielding leads to severalfold increases in the dissolution time which grows logarithmically with the number of bubbles in 1D-lattices and algebraically in two and three dimensions, scaling respectively as its square root and 2/3-power. We further illustrate the sensitivity of the dissolution patterns to initial fluctuations in bubble size or arrangement in the case of large and dense lattices, as well as non-intuitive oscillatory effects.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2015

Influence and optimization of the electrodes position in a piezoelectric energy harvesting flag

Fluttering piezoelectric plates may harvest energy from a fluid flow by converting the plate's mechanical deformation into electric energy in an output circuit. This work focuses on the influence of the arrangement of the piezoelectric electrodes along the plate's surface on the energy harvesting efficiency of the system, using a combination of experiments and numerical simulations. A weakly non-linear model of a plate in axial flow, equipped with a discrete number of piezoelectric patches is derived and confronted to experimental results. Numerical simulations are then used to optimize the position and dimensions of the piezoelectric electrodes. These optimal configurations can be understood physically in the limit of small and large electromechanical coupling.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2014

Self-propulsion of pure water droplets by spontaneous Marangoni stress driven motion

We report spontaneous motion in a fully bio-compatible system consisting of pure water droplets in an oil-surfactant medium of squalane and monoolein. Water from the droplet is solubilized by the reverse micellar solution, creating a concentration gradient of swollen reverse micelles around each droplet. The strong advection and weak diffusion conditions allow for the first experimental realization of spontaneous motion in a system of isotropic particles at sufficiently large Péclet number according to a straightforward generalization of a recently proposed mechanism. Experiments with a highly concentrated solution of salt instead of water, and tetradecane instead of squalane, confirm the above mechanism. The present swimming droplets are able to carry external bodies such as large colloids, salt crystals, and even cells.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2014

A space-averaged model of branched structures

Many biological systems and artificial structures are ramified, and present a high geometric complexity. In this work, we propose a space-averaged model of branched systems for conservation laws. From a one-dimensional description of the system, we show that the space-averaged problem is also one-dimensional, represented by characteristic curves, defined as streamlines of the space-averaged branch directions. The geometric complexity is then captured firstly by the characteristic curves, and secondly by an additional forcing term in the equations. This model is then applied to mass balance in a pipe network and momentum balance in a tree under wind loading.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2014

Phoretic self-propulsion at finite Péclet numbers

Phoretic self-propulsion is a unique example of force- and torque-free motion on small scales. The classical framework describing the flow field around a particle swimming by self-diffusiophoresis neglects the advection of the solute field by the flow and assumes that the chemical interaction layer is thin compared to the particle size. In this paper we quantify and characterize the effect of solute advection on the phoretic swimming of a sphere. We first rigorously derive the regime of validity of the thin-interaction layer assumption at finite values of the Péclet number (Pe). Within this assumption, we solve computationally the flow around Janus phoretic particles and examine the impact of solute advection on propulsion and the flow created by the particle. We demonstrate that although advection always leads to a decrease of the swimming speed and flow stresslet at high values of the Péclet number, an increase can be obtained at intermediate values of Pe. This possible enhancement of swimming depends critically on the nature of the chemical interactions between the solute and the surface. We then derive an asymptotic analysis of the problem at small Pe allowing to rationalize our computational results. Our computational and theoretical analysis is accompanied by a parallel study of the role of reactive effects at the surface of the particle on swimming (Damköhler number).

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2013

Drag Reduction, from Bending to Pruning

Most plants and benthic organisms have evolved efficient reconfiguration mechanisms to resist flow-induced loads. These mechanisms can be divided into bending, in which plants reduce their sail area through elastic deformation, and pruning, in which the loads are decreased through partial breakage of the structure. In this work, we show by using idealized models that these two mechanisms or, in fact, any combination of the two, are equally efficient to reduce the drag experienced by terrestrial and aquatic vegetation.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2011

Optimal feeding is optimal swimming for all Péclet numbers

Cells swimming in viscous fluids create flow fields which influence the transport of relevant nutrients, and therefore their feeding rate. We propose a modeling approach to the problem of optimal feeding at zero Reynolds number. We consider a simplified spherical swimmer deforming its shape tangentially in a steady fashion (so-called squirmer). Assuming that the nutrient is a passive scalar obeying an advection-diffusion equation, the optimal use of flow fields by the swimmer for feeding is determined by maximizing the diffusive flux at the organism surface for a fixed rate of energy dissipation in the fluid. The results are obtained through the use of an adjoint-based numerical optimization implemented by a Legendre polynomial spectral method. We show that, to within a negligible amount, the optimal feeding mechanism consists in putting all the energy expended by surface distortion into swimming - so-called treadmill motion - which is also the solution maximizing the swimming efficiency. Surprisingly, although the rate of feeding depends strongly on the value of the Péclet number, the optimal feeding stroke is shown to be essentially independent of it, which is confirmed by asymptotic analysis. Within the context of steady actuation, optimal feeding is therefore found to be equivalent to optimal swimming for all Péclet numbers.

physics.flu-dyn↗