A Simulation Algorithm for Brownian Dynamics on Complex Curved Surfaces
arXiv:1908.07166 · doi:10.1063/1.5126201
Abstract
Brownian dynamics of colloidal particles on complex surfaces has found important applications in diverse physical, chemical and biological processes. However, current Brownian dynamics simulation algorithms mostly work for relatively simple surfaces that can be analytically parameterized. In this work, we develop an algorithm to enable Brownian dynamics simulation on extremely complex surfaces. We approximate complex surfaces with triangle mesh surfaces and employ a novel scheme to perform particle simulation on these triangle mesh surfaces. Our algorithm computes forces and velocities of particles in global coordinates but updates their positions in local coordinates, which benefits from the advantages of simulation schemes in both global and local coordinate alone. We benchmark the proposed algorithm with theory and then simulate Brownian dynamics of both single and multiple particles on torus and knot surfaces. The results show that our method captures well diffusion, transport, and crystallization of colloidal particles on complex surfaces with non-trivial topology. This study offers an efficient strategy for elucidating the impact of curvature, geometry, and topology on particle dynamics and microstructure formation in complex environments.
References in corpus (10)
- The Physics of the Colloidal Glass Transition
- Topology and Dynamics of Active Nematic Vesicles
- Colloidal Jamming at Interfaces: a Route to Fluid-bicontinuous Gels
- Grain Boundary Scars and Spherical Crystallography
- Active Jamming: Self-propelled soft particles at high density
- Topological Sound and Flocking on Curved Surfaces
- Fractionalization of Interstitials in Curved Colloidal Crystals
- Strong geometric frustration in model glassformers
- Particles on curved surfaces - a dynamic approach by a phase field crystal model
- A method for molecular dynamics on curved surfaces