Related papers: Curvature-mediated Programming of Liquid Crystal M…
The tendency for flows in microfluidic systems to behave linearly poses a challenge for designing integrated flow control schemes to carry out complex fluid processing tasks. This hindrance has led to the use of numerous external control…
We investigate how ferrofluid droplets suspended in a wall-bounded shear flow can organise when subjected to an external magnetic field. By tuning the magnitude of the external magnetic field, we find that the ferrofluid droplets form…
Colloidal particles in a liquid crystal (LC) behave very differently from their counterparts in isotropic fluids. Elastic nature of the orientational order and surface anchoring of the director cause long-range anisotropic interactions and…
Oscillatory flow in confined spaces is central to understanding physiological flows and rational design of synthetic periodic-actuation based micromachines. Using theory and experiments on oscillating flows generated through a laser-induced…
We study living liquid crystals (LLCs), which are an amalgam of nematic liquid crystals (LCs) and active matter (AM). These LLCs are placed in contact with surfaces which impose planar/homeotropic boundary conditions on the director field…
We demonstrate the generation of diverse material flow regimes in nematic liquid cells as driven by time-variable active surface anchoring, including no-net flow, oscillatory flow, steady flow, and pulsating flow. Specifically, we…
Random lasers (RL) emit light through multiple scattering in disordered gain media, typically resulting in isotropic emission with limited directionality control. Controlling RL emission direction in compact systems remains a challenge.…
High-precision micromanipulation techniques, including optical tweezers and hydrodynamic trapping, have garnered wide-spread interest. Recent advances in optofluidic multiplexed assembly and microrobotics demonstrate significant progress,…
Liquid crystalline media mediate interactions between suspended particles and confining geometries, which not only has potential to guide patterning and bottom-up colloidal assembly, but can also control colloidal migration in microfluidic…
We describe a numerical investigation of a continuum model of an active nematic, concentrating on the regime of active turbulence. Results are presented for the effect of three parameters, activity, elastic constant and rotational diffusion…
The emerging field of deformable microfluidics widely employed in the Lab-on-a-Chip and MEMS communities offers an opportunity to study a relatively under-examined physics. The main objective of this work is to provide a deeper insight into…
We investigate a mechanism to manipulate wall-bounded flows whereby wave-like undulations of the wall topography drives the creation of bespoke longitudinal vortices. A resonant interaction between the ambient vorticity of the undisturbed…
Simulation of fluid flow in porous media has many applications, from the micro-scale (cell membranes, filters, rocks) to macro-scale (groundwater, hydrocarbon reservoirs, and geothermal) and beyond. Direct simulation of flow in porous media…
In this work, we study the flow in curved channels, an archetypal configuration that allows insights into problems featuring turbulence bounded by curved walls. Besides its relevance to many engineering applications, it exhibits a rich…
In many biological systems, the curvature of the surfaces cells live on influence their collective properties. Curvature should likewise influence the behavior of active colloidal particles. We show using molecular simulation of…
We study the geometric flow of a planar curve driven by its curvature and the normal derivative of its capacity potential. Under a convexity condition that is natural to our problem, we establish long term existence and large time…
We demonstrate optical trapping and manipulation of defects and transparent microspheres in nematic liquid crystals (LCs). The three-dimensional director fields and positions of the particles are visualized using the Fluorescence Confocal…
Coupling between flow and orientation is a central issue in understanding the collective dynamics of active biofilaments and cells. Active stresses generated by motor activity destroy (quasi-)long-range orientational order and induce…
We present explicit expressions of the helicity conservation in nematic liquid crystal flows, for both the Ericksen-Leslie and Landau-de Gennes theories. This is done by using a minimal coupling argument that leads to an Euler-like equation…
Using novel micro-printing techniques, we develop a versatile experimental setup that allows us to study how lateral confinement tames the active flows and defect properties of the microtubule/kinesin active nematic system. We demonstrate…