Related papers: Effective viscosity of microswimmer suspensions
Complex fluids containing low concentrations of slender colloidal rods can display a high viscosity, while little flow is needed to thin the fluid. This feature makes slender rods essential constituents in industrial applications and…
The locomotion of microorganisms and spermatozoa in complex viscoelastic fluids is of critical importance in many biological processes such as fertilization, infection, and biofilm formation. Depending on their propulsion mechanisms,…
Interactions between microorganisms and solid boundaries play an important role in biological processes, like egg fertilisation, biofilm formation and soil colonisation, where microswimmers move within a structured environment. Despite…
The cell body of flagellated microalgae is commonly considered to act merely as a passive load during swimming, and a larger body size would simply reduce the speed. In this work, we use numerical simulations based on a boundary element…
We study the shearing rheology of dense suspensions of elastic capsules, taking aggregation-free red blood cells as a physiologically relevant example. Particles are non-Brownian and interact only via hydrodynamics and short-range repulsive…
Cellular appendages such as cilia and flagella represent universal tools enabling cells and microbes, among other essential functionalities, to propel themselves in diverse environments. In its planktonic, i.e. freely swimming, state the…
The study of active matter system has critical importance in revealing the physical essence of biological collective behavior. Dense bacterial suspension - a typical biological active matter, exhibits a wide range of phenomenons, among…
Low Reynolds number direct simulations of large populations of hydrodynamically interacting swimming particles confined between planar walls are performed. The results of simulations are compared with a theory that describes dilute…
The majority of studies on self-propelled particles and microswimmers concentrates on objects that do not feature a deterministic bending of their trajectory. However, perfect axial symmetry is hardly found in reality, and shape-asymmetric…
Microorganisms inhabit viscoelastic environments, where their locomotion can deform polymers and trigger local complex viscoelastic responses. However, a systematic approach to quantify such responses remains lacking. Here, we propose a…
Bacterial suspensions--a premier example of active fluids--show an unusual response to shear stresses. Instead of increasing the viscosity of the suspending fluid, the emergent collective motions of swimming bacteria can turn a suspension…
We point out unconventional mechanical properties of confined active fluids, such as bacterial suspensions, under shear. Using a minimal model of an active liquid crystal with no free parameters, we predict the existence of a window of…
We study a swimming undulating sheet in the isotropic phase of an active nematic liquid crystal. Activity changes the effective shear viscosity, reducing it to zero at a critical value of activity. Expanding in the sheet amplitude, we find…
Although the motility of the flagellated bacteria, Escherichia coli, has been widely studied, the effect of viscosity on swimming speed remains controversial. The swimming mode of wild-type E.coli is often idealized as a "run-and- tumble"…
The role of passive body dynamics on the kinematics of swimming micro-organisms in complex fluids is investigated. Asymptotic analysis of small amplitude motions of a finite-length undulatory swimmer in a Stokes-Oldroyd-B fluid is used to…
As for many motile micro-algae, the freshwater species Chlamydomonas reinhardtii can detect light sources and adapt its motile behavior in response. Here, we show that suspensions of photophobic cells can be unstable to density…
Microorganisms can preferentially orient and move along gradients of a chemo-attractant (i.e., chemotax) while colonies of many microorganisms can collectively undergo complex dynamics in response to chemo-attractants that they themselves…
We investigate dense suspensions of swimming bacteria prepared in a nutrient-exchange chamber. Near the pellet concentration, nonthermal fluctuations showed notable agreement between self and collective behaviors, a phenomenon not…
Active turbulence arises typically in systems ranging from microorganisms and biopolymers to synthetic colloids, where chaotic flows are closely associated with motile topological defects in collectively swarming suspensions. Here, we…
Cells swimming in confined environments are attracted by surfaces. We measure the steady-state distribution of smooth-swimming bacteria (Escherichia coli) between two glass plates. In agreement with earlier studies, we find a strong…