Activity-controlled clogging and unclogging of micro-channels

Abstract

We propose a mechanism to control the formation of stable obstructions in two-dimensional micro-channels of variable sections taking advantage of the peculiar clustering property of active systems. Under the activation of the self-propulsion by external stimuli, the system behaves as a switch according to the following principle: by turning-on the self-propulsion the particles become active and even at very low densities stick to the walls and form growing layers eventually blocking the channel bottleneck, while the obstruction dissolves when the self-propulsion is turned off. We construct the phase diagram distinguishing clogged and open states in terms of density and bottleneck width. The study of the average clogging time, as a function of density and bottleneck width, reveals the marked efficiency of the active clogging that swiftly responds to the self-propulsion turning on. The resulting picture shows a profound difference with respect to the clogging obtained through the slow diffusive dynamics of attractive passive Brownian disks. This numerical work suggests a novel method to use particles with externally tunable self-propulsion to create or destroy plugs in micro-channels.

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model for self-propelled particles with inertia
• Dynamics of active particles with space-dependent swim velocity
• Generalized Fluctuation-Dissipation relations holding in non-equilibrium dynamics
• Control of Active Brownian Particles: An exact solution
• Inertial effects on rectification and diffusion of active Brownian particles in an asymmetric channel
• Critical behavior of quorum-sensing active particles
• Active Matter Shepherding and Clustering in Inhomogeneous Environments
• Polarization and dynamic phases of aligning active matter in periodic obstacle arrays
• Transient Pattern Formation in an Active Matter Contact Poisoning Model
• Transverse Self-Propulsion Enhances the Aggregation of Active Dumbbells
• Hydrodynamics of simple active liquids: the emergence of velocity correlations
• Run-and-tumble particle with saturating rates