Migration of semiflexible polymers in microcapillary flow

Abstract

The non-equilibrium structural and dynamical properties of a semiflexible polymer confined in a cylindrical microchannel and exposed to a Poiseuille flow is studied by mesoscale hydrodynamic simulations. For a polymer with a length half of its persistence length, large variations in orientation and conformations are found as a function of radial distance and flow strength. In particular, the polymer exhibits U-shaped conformations near the channel center. Hydrodynamic interactions lead to strong cross-streamline migration. Outward migration is governed by the polymer orientation and the corresponding anisotropy in its diffusivity. Strong tumbling motion is observed, with a tumbling time which exhibits the same dependence on Peclet number as a polymer in shear flow.

6 pages, 7 figures, accepted by EPL

References in corpus (5)

• Simulation of a Single Polymer Chain in Solution by Combining Lattice Boltzmann and Molecular Dynamics
• Multi-particle-collision dynamics: Flow around a circular and a square cylinder
• Transport coefficients of a mesoscopic fluid dynamics model
• Dynamics of short polymer chains in solution
• Mesoscale simulations of polymer dynamics in microchannel flows

Cited by in corpus (16)

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• Morphological transitions of elastic filaments in shear flow
• The self-propelled Brownian spinning top: dynamics of a biaxial swimmer at low Reynolds numbers
• Flow-Induced Helical Coiling of Semiflexible Polymers in Structured Microchannels
• Methods for suspensions of passive and active filaments
• Dynamics of fibers in a wide microchannel
• Semiflexible polymer conformation, distribution and migration in microcapillary flows
• Steady state sedimentation of ultrasoft colloids
• Longitudinal Response of Confined Semiflexible Polymers
• Semiflexible polymers under external fields confined to two dimensions
• Characteristic features of self-avoiding active Brownian polymers under linear shear flow
• Tethered Semiflexible Polymer under Large Amplitude Oscillatory Shear
• Supercoiled ring polymers under shear flow
• Deformation of a flexible fiber in a viscous flow past an obstacle
• Compression of a confined semiflexible polymer under direct and oscillating fields
• Flow-Induced Buckling of Elastic Microfilaments with Non-Uniform Bending Stiffness