Universal optimal geometry of minimal phoretic pumps
Fluid Dynamics
2019-07-26 v1 Soft Condensed Matter
Biological Physics
Chemical Physics
Abstract
Unlike pressure-driven flows, surface-mediated phoretic flows provide efficient means to drive fluid motion on very small scales. Colloidal particles covered with chemically-active patches with nonzero phoretic mobility (e.g. Janus particles) swim using self-generated gradients, and similar physics can be exploited to create phoretic pumps. Here we analyse in detail the design principles of phoretic pumps and show that for a minimal phoretic pump, consisting of 3 distinct chemical patches, the optimal arrangement of the patches maximizing the flow rate is universal and independent of chemistry.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1907.06839,
title = {Universal optimal geometry of minimal phoretic pumps},
author = {Sebastien Michelin and Eric Lauga},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.06839},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
8 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Scientific Reports