Related papers: Confinement-induced motion of ciliates
There is increasing evidence that mammalian cells not only crawl on substrates but can also swim in fluids. To elucidate the mechanisms of the onset of motility of cells in suspension, a model which couples actin and myosin kinetics to…
We investigate 3-dimensional flagellar swimming in a fluid with a sparse network of stationary obstacles or fibers. The Brinkman equation is used to model the average fluid flow where a flow-dependent term, including a resistance parameter…
The complex formations exhibited by schooling fish have long been the object of fascination for biologists and physicists. However, the physical and sensory mechanisms leading to organized collective behavior remain elusive. On the physical…
Micron-sized self-propelled (active) particles can be considered as model systems for characterizing more complex biological organisms like swimming bacteria or motile cells. We produce asymmetric microswimmers by soft lithography and study…
Ciliary flows are generated by a vast array of eukaryotic organisms, from unicellular algae to mammals, and occur in a range of different geometrical configurations. We employ a point torque -- or `rotlet' -- model to capture the…
Coordinated cilia are used throughout the natural world for micronscale fluid transport. They are often modelled with regular filament arrays on fixed, planar surfaces. Here, we simulate hundreds of interacting active filaments on spherical…
We perform Brownian dynamics simulations in two dimensions to study the collective behavior of circle swimmers, which are driven by both, an (effective) translational and rotational self-propulsion, and interact via steric repulsion. We…
The velocity relaxation of an impulsively forced spherical particle in a fluid confined by two parallel plane walls is studied using a direct numerical simulation approach. During the relaxation process, the momentum of the particle is…
When treated with antibiotics below the minimum inhibitory concentration, bacterial cell division turns off, but cell growth does not. Thus, rod-like bacteria, including E. coli, can elongate many times their length without increasing their…
Self-organized dynamic patterns in dense active matter are striking manifestations of non-equilibrium physics. A prominent example is the macroscopic elliptical motion observed in quasi-2D bacterial suspensions, which has lacked a physical…
We use a 3D computational model to study the fluid transport and mixing due to the beating of an infinite array of cilia. In accord with recent experiments, we observe two distinct regions: a fluid transport region above the cilia and a…
Microorganisms swimming through viscous fluids imprint their propulsion mechanisms in the flow fields they generate. Extreme confinement of these swimmers between rigid boundaries often arises in natural and technological contexts, yet…
Many biological fluids are composed of suspended polymers immersed in a viscous fluid. A prime example is mucus, where the polymers are also known to form a network. While the presence of this microstructure is linked with an overall…
Geometric confinements are frequently encountered in soft matter systems and in particular significantly alter the dynamics of swimming microorganisms in viscous media. Surface-related effects on the motility of microswimmers can lead to…
We use particle simulations to reveal two distinct propulsion mechanisms for a scallop-like swimmer to locomote itself in granular media by reciprocally flapping its wings. Based on the discrete element method, we examine the kinematics and…
An approximation to the added mass matrix of an assembly of spheres is constructed on the basis of potential flow theory for situations where one sphere is much larger than the others. In the approximation the flow potential near a small…
Many eukaryotic cells undergo frequent shape changes (described as amoeboid motion) that enable them to move forward. We investigate the effect of confinement on a minimal model of amoeboid swimmer. Complex pictures emerge: (i) The…
Understanding swimming in soft yielding media is challenging due to their complex deformation response to the swimmer's motion. We experimentally show that a scallop-inspired swimmer with reciprocally flapping wings generates locomotion in…
We analyze the dynamics of a tracer particle embedded in a bath of hard spheres confined in a channel of varying section. By means of Brownian dynamics simulations we apply a constant force on the tracer particle and discuss the dependence…
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…