Related papers: Growth-induced mass flows in fungal networks
Transport networks, such as vasculature or river networks, provide key functions in organisms and the environment. They usually contain loops whose significance for the stability and robustness of the network is well documented. However,…
Highly-optimized complex transport networks serve crucial functions in many man-made and natural systems such as power grids and plant or animal vasculature. Often, the relevant optimization functional is non-convex and characterized by…
Flows over remarkably long distances are crucial to the functioning of many organisms, across all kingdoms of life. Coordinated flows are fundamental to power deformations, required for migration or development, or to spread resources and…
Complex distribution networks are pervasive in biology. Examples include nutrient transport in the slime mold \emph{Physarum polycephalum} as well as mammalian and plant venation. Adaptive rules are believed to guide development of these…
Incompressible fluids in microfluidic networks with non-rigid channels can exhibit flow rate oscillations analogous to electric current oscillations in RLC circuits. This is due to the elastic deformation of channel walls that can store and…
The Physarum network expands or retracts in response to environmental stimuli, demonstrating an intelligent adaptive capability to locate optimal paths for nutrient transport. The underlying physical mechanism governing this intelligence…
The large-scale collective behavior of biological systems can be characterized by macroscopic transport, which arises from the non-equilibrium microscopic interactions among individual constituents. A prominent example is the formation of…
Liquid diodes are surface structures that facilitate the flow of liquids in a specific direction. When these structures are within the capillary regime, they promote liquid transport without the need for external forces. In nature, they are…
Active fluid transport is a hallmark of many biological transport networks. While animal circulatory systems generally rely on a single heart to drive flows, other organisms employ decentralized local pumps to distribute fluids and…
Physarum polycephalum is an acellular slime mould that grows as a highly adaptive network of veins filled with protoplasm. As it forages, Physarum dynamically rearranges its network structure as a response to local stimuli information,…
In the realm of biological flow networks, the ability to dynamically adjust to varying demands is paramount. Drawing inspiration from the remarkable adaptability of Physarum polycephalum, we present a novel physical mechanism tailored to…
The immiscible displacement of a fluid by another one inside a porous medium produces different types of patterns depending on the capillary number Ca and viscosity ratio M. At high Ca, viscous fingers resulting from the viscous instability…
We study immiscible two-phase flow of a compressible and an incompressible fluid inside a capillary tube of varying radius under steady-state conditions. The incompressible fluid is Newtonian and the compressible fluid is an inviscid ideal…
Channel formation and branching is widely seen in physical systems where movement of fluid through a porous structure causes the spatiotemporal evolution of the medium in response to the flow, in turn causing flow pathways to evolve. We…
Transport networks are crucial to the functioning of natural and technological systems. Nature features transport networks that are adaptive over a vast range of parameters, thus providing an impressive level of robustness in supply.…
Controlling bacterial surface adhesion and subsequent biofilm formation in fluid systems is crucial for the safety and efficacy of medical and industrial processes. Here, we theoretically examine the transport of bacteria close to surfaces,…
Hypothesis: Droplet coalescence is a common phenomenon and plays an important role in many applications. When two liquid droplets are brought into contact, a liquid bridge forms and expands quickly. Different from miscible droplets, an…
A dynamic self-organized morphology is the hallmark of network-shaped organisms like slime moulds and fungi. Organisms continuously re-organize their flexible, undifferentiated body plans to forage for food. Among these organisms the slime…
It is becoming increasingly clear that there is a regime in immiscible two-phase flow in porous media where the flow rate depends of the pressure drop as a power law with exponent different than one. This occurs when the capillary forces…
In tissues as diverse as amphibian skin and the human airway, the cilia that propel fluid are grouped in sparsely distributed multiciliated cells (MCCs). We investigate fluid transport in this "mosaic" architecture, with emphasis on the…