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Harnessing wall slip towards tunable microswimming in Poiseuille flow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2024

Soumyajit Ghosh Open the ORCID record for Soumyajit Ghosh [Opens in a new window] ,
Srimoyee Ghoshal  and
Antarip Poddar Open the ORCID record for Antarip Poddar [Opens in a new window]
Soumyajit Ghosh
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Dhanbad (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, Jharkhand 826004, India
Srimoyee Ghoshal
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology, Kolkata, West Bengal 700150, India
Antarip Poddar*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Dhanbad (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, Jharkhand 826004, India
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

Understanding the effect of intricate surface wettability conditions on microswimmers is crucial for precisely navigating them across narrow microcirculatory networks. Here, we adopt the spherical squirmer model and Navier slip condition to delineate the microswimmer locomotion under a Poiseuille flow in a slit microchannel. Through a combined analytical–numerical approach utilizing bispherical coordinates and the superposition technique, we resolve the slip-modulated simultaneous hydrodynamic interaction with substrate boundaries. Phase portraits reveal that slip significantly alters propulsion mechanisms, destabilizing centreline stable oscillations of pullers beyond a threshold slip length. Superhydrophobic surfaces suppress near-wall rheotaxis states but preserve centreline focusing, facilitating slip-assisted directed transport without surface accumulation. Under strong background flows, subcritical Hopf bifurcation emerges for pullers at a critical slip length, transitioning dynamics from coexisting stable and unstable states to purely unstable behaviour. Contrastingly, for pushers, slip causes a transition from unstable to either stable or fixed-amplitude oscillations. Increased slip length reduces hydrodynamic repulsion on pullers from the walls by enhancing rotational velocity near the walls, whereas it counteracts the torque that causes unstable oscillations of pushers. Three-dimensional analysis of the trajectories reveals the significant role of the out-of-plane orientation of the microswimmer in its transitions between different swimming states. The presented regime maps offer parametric combinations for specific motion behaviours, guiding the development of smart microfluidic drug delivery systems and preventing biofilm deposition in biomedical devices.

JFM classification

Biological Fluid Dynamics: Micro-organism dynamics Complex Fluids: Active matter Micro-/Nano-fluid dynamics: Microfluidics
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 997 , 25 October 2024 , A59
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© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

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