Related papers: Flow fields around active droplets squeezing throu…
Active droplets are artificial microswimmers built from a liquid dispersion by microfluidic tools and showing self-propelled motion. These systems hold particular interest for mimicking biological phenomena, such as some aspects of cell…
Biological microswimmers often encounter deformable boundaries in physiological conditions; for instance, the viscoelastic walls of reproductive tract during migration of spermatozoa, or host tissue during early bacterial biofilm formation.…
The transport and deformation of confined droplets and flexible capsules are central to diverse phenomena and applications, from biological flows in microcapillaries to industrial processes in porous media. Inspired by experiments, we…
We present here first-of-a-kind experimental measurements of the flow field around a swimming water droplet, using confocal PIV in three dimensions. The droplet is denser than the continuous oil phase, and swims close and parallel to the…
We numerically study the dynamics of a passive fluid droplet confined within a microchannel whose walls are covered with a thin layer of active gel. The latter represents a fluid of extensile material modelling, for example, a suspension of…
Despite their importance in many biological, ecological and physical processes, microorganismal fluid flows under tight confinement have not been investigated experimentally. Strong screening of Stokelets in this geometry suggests that the…
The encapsulation of active particles, such as bacteria or active colloids, inside a droplet gives rise to nontrivial shape dynamics and droplet motility. To understand this behavior, we derive an asymptotic solution for the fluid flow…
Geometric confinements are frequently encountered in the biological world and strongly affect the stability, topology, and transport properties of active suspensions in viscous flow. Based on a far-field analytical model, the…
Active particles under soft confinement such as droplets or vesicles present intriguing phenomena, as collective motion emerges alongside the deformation of the environment. A model is employed to systematically investigate droplet…
We numerically study the dynamics of a three-dimensional contractile fluid droplet in the bulk and under confinement. We show that varying activity leads to a variety of shapes and motile regimes whose motion is driven by an interplay…
The present study deals with the dynamics of a double emulsion confined in a microchannel under the presence of a uniform electric field. Towards investigating the non-trivial electrohydrodynamics of a compound droplet, confined in between…
Microscopic active droplets are able to swim autonomously in viscous flows: this puzzling feature stems from solute exchanges with the surrounding fluid via surface reactions or their spontaneous solubilisation, and the interfacial flows…
We study the hydrodynamics and shape changes of chemically active droplets. In non-spherical droplets, surface tension generates hydrodynamic flows that drive liquid droplets into a spherical shape. Here we show that spherical droplets that…
We have developed a coupled level set and volume of fluid-based computational fluid dynamics model to analyze the droplet formation mechanism in a square flow-focusing microchannel. We demonstrate a flexible manipulation of droplet…
We study the self-propulsion of spherical droplets as simplified hydrodynamic models of swimming microorganisms or artificial microswimmers. In contrast to approaches, which start from active velocity fields produced by the system, we…
The present study deals with the numerical as well as asymptotic analysis of the electrohydrodynamic interaction between two deformable droplets in a confined shear flow. Considering both the phases as leaky dielectric, we have performed…
Droplets confined in a microfluidic channel often exhibit intriguing shapes, primarily attributable to complex hydrodynamic interactions over small scales. We show that effect of varied substrate wettability conditions may further…
Active fluid droplets are a class of soft materials exhibiting autonomous motion sustained by an energy supply. Such systems have been shown to capture motility regimes typical of biological cells and are ideal candidates as building-block…
To explore and react to their environment, living micro-swimmers have developed sophisticated strategies for locomotion - in particular, motility with multiple gaits. To understand the physical principles associated with such a behavioural…
In most practical situations, active particles are affected by their environment, for example, by a chemical concentration gradient, light intensity, gravity, or confinement. In particular, the effect of an external flow field is important…