Abstract
The dynamics of highly flexible micro- and nano-filaments are important to a variety of biological, medical, and industrial problems. The filament configuration variation and cross-stream migration in a microchannel are affected by thermal fluctuations in addition to elastic and viscous forces. Here, hydrogel nano-filaments with small bending Young’s moduli are utilized to elucidate the transitional behavior of elastic Brownian filaments in an oscillatory microchannel flow. A numerical model based on chain elastic dumbbells similar to the Rouse–Zimm model accounting for elastic, viscous, and random Brownian forces is proposed and implemented. In addition, a theoretical model to describe the average orientation–deformation tensor evolution for an ensemble of filaments in an oscillatory flow is proposed. The results are compared with the evolution observed in the experiments.
Highlights
Dynamics of flexible micro- and nano-filaments is of importance to a variety of biological and industrial systems
Understanding the dynamics of individual polymer objects provides a direct link between the macromolecular configurations and rheological properties of polymeric systems
Linking mechanical and microscopic properties of the suspended objects to the macroscopic response of the suspension or polymer solution is one of the fundamental scientific challenges of soft matter physics, which remains open for a large number of important situations
Summary
Dynamics of flexible micro- and nano-filaments is of importance to a variety of biological and industrial systems. Deformation of such filaments determines rheological properties of polymer solutions and transport of subcellular structures. Understanding the dynamics of individual polymer objects provides a direct link between the macromolecular configurations (based on molecular models) and rheological properties of polymeric systems. Dynamics of flexible micro- and nano-filaments is of importance to a variety of biological and industrial systems.1,2 Deformation of such filaments determines rheological properties of polymer solutions and transport of subcellular structures.. Brownian fluctuations were considered in addition to the elastic bending and viscous stresses in the numerical model developed using nonlocal slender-body hydrodynamics.. Brownian fluctuations were considered in addition to the elastic bending and viscous stresses in the numerical model developed using nonlocal slender-body hydrodynamics.13 They observed different filament dynamics including tumbling to buckling and snaking motions.. The ensemble-averaged orientation–deformation tensor describing the flexible gelled filament evolution is described theoretically, and a particular case of the oscillatory flow is considered in detail Such theoretical predictions are compared to the available experimental data
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