Cascade or not cascade? Energy transfer and elastic effects in active nematics

Abstract

We numerically study the multi-scale properties of a 2d active gel to address the energy transfer mechanism. We find that activity is able to excite long-ranged distortions of the nematic pattern giving rise to spontaneous laminar flows and to a chaotic regime by further increasing the rate of active energy injection. By means of a scale-to-scale spectral analysis we find that the gel is basically driven by the local balancing between active injection and viscous dissipation, without any signal of non-linear hydrodynamical transfer and turbulent cascades. Furthermore, elasticity may qualitatively play an important role by transferring energy from small to larger scales through nemato-hydrodynamic interactions.

arXiv comment7 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (36)

• The Mechanics and Statistics of Active Matter
• Spontaneous motion in hierarchically assembled active matter
• Meso-scale turbulence in living fluids
• Elastic turbulence in a polymer solution flow
• Fluid dynamics of bacterial turbulence
• Rheology of Active-Particle Suspensions
• Cascades and transitions in turbulent flows
• Spontaneous flow transition in active polar gels
• Orientational order of motile defects in active nematics
• Steady-state hydrodynamic instabilities of active liquid crystals: Hybrid lattice Boltzmann simulations
• Defect dynamics in active nematics
• Topological structure and dynamics of three dimensional active nematics
• Velocity Correlations in an Active Nematic
• Electrokinetic Effects in Catalytic Pt-Insulator Janus Swimmers
• Onset of meso-scale turbulence in living fluids
• Instabilities and Topological Defects in Active Nematics
• Taming active turbulence with patterned soft interfaces
• Sheared active fluids: thickening, thinning and vanishing viscosity
• Universal scaling of active nematic turbulence
• Excitable Patterns in Active Nematics
• Lattice Boltzmann Methods and Active Fluids
• Rotation and propulsion in 3d active chiral droplets
• Phase co-existence in bidimensional passive and active dumbbell systems
• Symmetric shear banding and swarming vortices in bacterial "superfluids"
• Phase transition to large scale coherent structures in 2d active matter turbulence
• Spontaneous mirror-symmetry breaking induces inverse energy cascade in 3D active fluids
• Multi-scale statistics of turbulence motorized by active matter
• Active suspensions have non-monotonic flow curves and multiple mechanical equilibria
• Condensate formation and multiscale dynamics in two-dimensional active suspensions
• Multi-scale control of active emulsion dynamics
• Lamellar ordering, droplet formation and phase inversion in exotic active emulsions
• Rheology of active polar emulsions: from linear to unidirectional and unviscid flow, and intermittent viscosity
• Chaotic and periodical dynamics of active chiral droplets
• Morphology and flow patterns in highly asymmetric active emulsions
• Soft channel formation and symmetry breaking in exotic active emulsions
• The nature of triad interactions in active turbulence

Cited by in corpus (20)

• Active Turbulence
• Theory of defect-mediated morphogenesis
• Defect Line Coarsening and Refinement in Active Nematics
• Helical Flow States in Active Nematics
• Active turbulence and spontaneous phase separation in inhomogeneous extensile active gels
• The role of advective inertia in active nematic turbulence
• Lagrangian Manifestation of Anomalies in Active Turbulence
• A fast Chebyshev method for the Bingham closure with application to active nematic suspensions
• Tuneable defect-curvature coupling and topological transitions in active shells
• Phase behaviour and dynamics of three-dimensional active dumbbell systems
• Hydrodynamic Enhancement of $p$-atic Defect Dynamics
• Activity induced isotropic-polar transition in active liquid crystals
• Rheology of active emulsions with negative effective viscosity
• Friction mediated phase transition in confined active nematics
• Coexistence of defect morphologies in three dimensional active nematics
• Cascades and Kolmogorov's lognormal scaling in two-dimensional bacterial turbulence
• Turbulence to order transitions in activity patterned active nematics
• Hydrodynamic stability and pattern formation in hexatic epithelial layers
• Motility and self propulsion of active droplets
• Nematic order condensation and topological defects in inertial active nematics