Jiajun Tong, Courant/NYU
"Directed migration of microscale swimmers induced by an array of shaped obstacles: modeling and shape optimization"
Abstract: Achieving macroscopic directed migration of microscale swimmers in a fluid is an important step towards utilizing their autonomous motion. It has been experimentally shown that such migration can be induced by certain geometrically asymmetric obstacles in the aqueous environment, due to interaction between their boundaries and the swimmers. In this talk, I will introduce the recent work on modeling the directed migration of microscale bimetallic rods in a periodic array of posts with non-circular cross-sections. With the model, we are able to compute the intensity of the migration when the geometry of the post array is given. I will also discuss how we apply the shape optimization method to find better post shapes in the sense that they can induce stronger migration. A simplified model is also proposed to understand the numerical results a posteriori, offering a simpler alternative approach to design better posts. This is a joint work with Michael Shelley.
