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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 35: Poster: Micro- and Nanofluidics

CPP 35.1: Poster

Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 17:00–19:00, P2

Lattice Boltzmann simulations of cytoplasmic streaming — •Katrin Wolff, Davide Marenduzzo, and Mike Cates — Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, University of Edinburgh, UK

We model the cytoplasm's streaming motion in giant algae cells using lattice Boltzmann simulations. The fluid motion is driven by myosin motors carrying vesicles and crawling along actin filaments which are attached to the outer part of the cytoplasm. We address how the high speeds observed in experiments can be transmitted through the cytoplasm by assuming a layer of lower viscosity at the outer wall of the simulated compartment. The bulk cytoplasm is crowded with cell organelles but modelled as a simple fluid of high viscosity appropriate for the shear experienced. The motivation behind the low-viscosity layer is the assumption that those cell contents populating the cytoplasm do not reach up to the cell wall resulting in a more dilute solution close to the wall. The low-viscosity layer is not simulated itself but incorporated into a partial slip boundary condition. We derive an expression for a single-parameter boundary condition based on the relative viscosities of the bulk cytoplasm and the thin layer close to the wall and the layer's thickness.