Hydrodynamic interactions in narrow channels

Particle-particle interactions are of paramount importance in every multi-body system as they determine the collective behaviour and coupling strength. Many well-known interactions like electro-static, van der Waals or screened Coulomb, decay exponentially or with negative powers of the particle spacing $r$. Similarly, hydrodynamic interactions between particles undergoing Brownian motion decay as $1/r$ in bulk, and are assumed to decay in small channels. Such interactions are ubiquitous in biological and technological systems. Here I confine multiple particles undergoing Brownian motion in narrow, microfluidic channels and study their coupling through hydrodynamic interactions. Our experiments show that the hydrodynamic particle-particle interactions are distance-independent in these channels. We also show that these interactions affect actively propelled particles via electrophoresis or gravity, resulting in non-linear transport phenomena. These findings are of fundamental importance for understanding transport of dense mixtures of particles or molecules through finite length, water-filled channels or pore networks.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Misiunas, Karolis

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Keyser, Ulrich F.

• hydrodynamics
• nanofluidics
• microfluidics
• interactions
• long-range
• Brownian motion
• diffusion
• nano-channel
• pore
• transport
• drug delivery

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/393c600c-2d1c-4634-a759-9f2091d7fdca/download
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Language dc:language

en

Author Identifier

0000-0002-2236-6244
0000-0003-3188-5414

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/286289