Work

Flow fields around active droplets squeezing through tight confinements

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We explain how self-propelling active droplets can squeeze through increasingly narrow microchannels with shape and velocity field adaptations. Using microscopy techniques, we show that these droplet microswimmers transform from a spherical to a `stadium'-like shape and eventually into an elongated `capsule'-like shape as they traverse extreme confined spaces. During this shape evolution, their hydrodynamic signature changes from a symmetric, quadrupolar to an asymmetric velocity field. Using finite-element based numerical simulations, we explain the flow field evolution by considering the thin lubricating film between the microchannel wall and the active droplet interface.

Source: Physical Review Fluids

DOI: 10.1103/physrevfluids.10.044202

Authors: Subhasish Guchhait, Smita S. Sontakke, Shubhadeep Mandal, Ranabir Dey

Institutions: Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore

Language: English

Topic: Micro and Nano Robotics

Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Science and Engineering Research Board

Awards: G1215422705, G2490971512, G3420156177