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Swimming and pumping at low Reynolds numbers are subject to the "Scallop theorem", which states that there will be no net fluid flow for time reversible motions. Living organisms such as bacteria and cells are subject to this constraint,…
Mixing at the microfluidic scale is challenging due to the low Reynolds numbers and often high P\'eclet numbers. Without turbulence, mixing relies solely on diffusion, resulting in slow and inefficient mixing. We demonstrate enhanced mixing…
We numerically study the dynamics of run-and-tumble particles confined in two chambers connected by thin channels. Two dominant dynamical behaviors emerge: (i) an oscillatory pumping state, in which particles periodically fill the two…
We use the boundary element method to study the low-Reynolds number locomotion of a spherical model microorganism in a circular tube. The swimmer propels itself by tangen- tial or normal surface motion in a tube whose radius is on the order…
Bacterial contamination of biological conducts, catheters or water resources is a major threat to public health and can be amplified by the ability of bacteria to swim upstream. The mechanisms of this rheotaxis, the reorientation with…
We perform fully coupled numerical simulations using immersed boundary methods of finite-size spheres and fibres suspended in a turbulent flow for a range of Taylor Reynolds numbers $12.8<Re_\lambda<442$ and solid mass fractions $0\leq…
We develop a formalism for modelling the impact of dark matter subhaloes on cold thin streams. Our formalism models the formation of a gap in a stream in angle-frequency space and is able to handle general stream and impact geometry. We…
The spontaneous spreading of non-volatile liquid droplets on solid substrates poses a classic problem in the context of wetting phenomena. It is well known that the spreading of a macroscopic droplet is in many cases accompanied by a thin…
Using extensive direct numerical simulations, the dynamics of laminar-turbulent fronts in pipe flow is investigated for Reynolds numbers between $Re=2000$ and $5500$. We here investigate the physical distinction between the fronts of weak…
The swimming motility of bacteria is driven by the action of bacterial flagellar motors, whose outermost structure is a long and thin helicoidal filament. When rotated, the fluid medium exerts an anisotropic viscous drag on the flagellar…
Propagating spiral waves have been discovered in various chemical, biological and physical systems. Spiral waves in multicellular organisms are often associated with essential living functions. Although certain eukaryotic microorganisms…
Filaments/prominences are cold plasma (~ 10000 K) embedded in the solar corona, two orders of magnitude hotter. Filament plasma is structured by the magnetic field in thin elongated threads. Counter-streaming flows have been observed. The…
In their search for metabolic resources microbes swim through viscous environments that present physical anisotropies, including steric obstacles across a wide range of sizes. Hydrodynamic forces are known to significantly alter swimmer…
The motion of microorganisms in their natural habitat is strongly influenced by their propulsion mechanisms, geometrical constraints, and random fluctuations. Here, we study numerically the first-passage-time (FPT) statistics of…
Bacteria can spontaneously develop collective motions by aligning their motions in dense systems. Here, we show that bacteria can also respond collectively to an alternating electrical field and form dynamic clusters oscillating at the same…
Flagellated bacteria exploiting helical propulsion are known to swim along circular trajectories near surfaces. Fluid dynamics predicts this circular motion to be clockwise (CW) above a rigid surface (when viewed from inside the fluid) and…
One of the main challenges in simulating high Reynolds number ($Re$) turbulent boundary layers (TBLs) is the long streamwise distance required for large-scale outer-layer structures to develop, making such simulations prohibitively…
We study a mesoscopic model for the flow of amorphous solids. The model is based on the key features identified at the microscopic level, namely peri- ods of elastic deformation interspersed with localised rearrangements of parti- cles that…
Microfiltration technology is a widely used engineering strategy for fresh water production and water treatment. The major concern in many applications is the formation of a biological fouling layer leading to increased hydraulic resistance…
Hospital-acquired infections represent significant health and financial burdens to society. Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is a particularly challenging bacteria with the potential to cause severe diarrhea and death. One mode of…