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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 7: Active Fluids and Microswimmers (joint session DY/BP/CPP)

BP 7.10: Talk

Monday, March 18, 2024, 17:45–18:00, BH-N 243

Microswimming under a wedge-shaped confinement — •Alexander R. Sprenger and Andreas M. Menzel — Institut für Physik, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, Universitätsplatz 2, D-39106 Magdeburg, Germany

Microswimmers, both living and artificial, frequently navigate through diverse and often confined environments. Their out-of-equilibrium nature of self-propulsion and associated fluid flows lead to complex hydrodynamic interactions with their surroundings. Understanding the impact of various confinements on the behavior of self-propelled particles is crucial for gaining insights into biological phenomena and motivating advancements in microtechnologies.

In this contribution, we study the low-Reynolds-number dynamics of microswimmers confined within a wedge-shaped free-slip boundary [1]. Such scenarios naturally occur in experiments on inhomogeneously evaporating fluid flows, which form a free-standing confinement between two converging interfaces. Additionally, wedge-shaped environments possess distinctive geometric trapping and guiding properties relevant to various microfluidic applications.

Here, we present an exact solution for the resulting flow fields for various opening angles of the wedge employing the method of images. In this manner, we investigate the hydrodynamic interactions between each swimmer and the confining interfaces. We find either attraction or repulsion towards the tip of the wedge, depending on the propulsion mechanism (pusher or puller) and the opening angle of the wedge.

[1] A. R. Sprenger, A. M. Menzel (submitted).

Keywords: Microswimmer; Self-propelled particles; Hydrodynamic interactions; Stokes equation; Confinement