The many behaviors of deformable active droplets

Y. N. Young, Michael J. Shelley, David B. Stein

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Active fluids consume fuel at the microscopic scale, converting this energy into forces that can drive macroscopic motions over scales far larger than their microscopic constituents. In some cases, the mechanisms that give rise to this phenomenon have been well characterized, and can explain experimentally observed behaviors in both bulk fluids and those confined in simple stationary geometries. More recently, active fluids have been encapsulated in viscous drops or elastic shells so as to interact with an outer environment or a deformable boundary. Such systems are not as well understood. In this work, we examine the behavior of droplets of an active nematic fluid. We study their linear stability about the isotropic equilibrium over a wide range of parameters, identifying regions in which different modes of instability dominate. Simulations of their full dynamics are used to identify their nonlinear behavior within each region. When a single mode dominates, the droplets behave simply: as rotors, swimmers, or extensors. When parameters are tuned so that multiple modes have nearly the same growth rate, a pantheon of modes appears, including zigzaggers, washing machines, wanderers, and pulsators.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2849-2881
Number of pages33
JournalMathematical Biosciences and Engineering
Volume18
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Modeling and Simulation
  • General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
  • Computational Mathematics
  • Applied Mathematics

Keywords

  • Active fluids
  • Confinement
  • Flow instability
  • Surface tension effects
  • Swimming

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