Electrokinetic locomotion due to reaction-induced charge auto-electrophoresis

2011 ◽  
Vol 680 ◽  
pp. 31-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
JEFFREY L. MORAN ◽  
JONATHAN D. POSNER

Mitchell originally proposed that an asymmetric ion flux across an organism's membrane could generate electric fields that drive locomotion. Although this locomotion mechanism was later rejected for some species of bacteria, engineered Janus particles have been realized that can swim due to ion fluxes generated by asymmetric electrochemical reactions. Here we present governing equations, scaling analyses and numerical simulations that describe the motion of bimetallic rod-shaped motors in hydrogen peroxide solutions due to reaction-induced charge auto-electrophoresis. The coupled Poisson–Nernst–Planck–Stokes equations are numerically solved using Frumkin-corrected Butler–Volmer equations to represent electrochemical reactions at the rod surface. Our simulations show strong agreement with the scaling analysis and experiments. The analysis shows that electrokinetic locomotion results from electro-osmotic fluid slip around the nanomotor surface. The electroviscous flow is driven by electrical body forces which are generated from a coupling of a reaction-induced dipolar charge density distribution and the electric field it creates. The magnitude of the electroviscous velocity increases quadratically with the surface reaction rate for an uncharged motor, and linearly when the motor supports a finite surface charge.

Author(s):  
Arturo Ferna´ndez ◽  
Jiacai Lu ◽  
Asghar Esmaeeli ◽  
Gre´tar Tryggvason

Direct numerical simulations are used to examine the effect of electric fields on the behavior of suspension of drops in dielectric fluids. The effect of electric field is modeled using the “leaky dielectric” model, coupled with the full Navier-Stokes equations. The governing equations are solved using a front-tracking/finite volume technique. The interaction of the drops is strongly dependant on the conductivity and the permittivity ratio, but fibration, where drops line up into long columns, takes place over a wide range of these parameters. The hydrodynamic interaction due to fluid circulation induced by the electric field has a strong influence on the drop distribution and the rate of fibration.


2021 ◽  
Vol 925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaushlendra Dubey ◽  
Sanjeev Sanghi ◽  
Amit Gupta ◽  
Supreet Singh Bahga

We present an experimental and numerical investigation of electrokinetic instability (EKI) in microchannel flow with streamwise conductivity gradients, such as those observed during sample stacking in capillary electrophoresis. A plug of a low-conductivity electrolyte solution is initially sandwiched between two high-conductivity zones in a microchannel. This spatial conductivity gradient is subjected to an external electric field applied along the microchannel axis, and for sufficiently strong electric fields an instability sets in. We have explored the physics of this EKI through experiments and numerical simulations, and supplemented the results using scaling analysis. We performed EKI experiments at different electric field values and visualised the flow using a passive fluorescent tracer. The experimental data were analysed using the proper orthogonal decomposition technique to obtain a quantitative measure of the threshold electric field for the onset of instability, along with the corresponding coherent structures. To elucidate the physical mechanism underlying the instability, we performed high-resolution numerical simulations of ion transport coupled with fluid flow driven by the electric body force. Simulations reveal that the non-uniform electroosmotic flow due to axially varying conductivity field causes a recirculating flow within the low-conductivity region, and creates a new configuration wherein the local conductivity gradients are orthogonal to the applied electric field. This configuration leads to EKI above a threshold electric field. The spatial features of the instability predicted by the simulations and the threshold electric field are in good agreement with the experimental observations and provide useful insight into the underlying mechanism of instability.


1997 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 358-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michio Nishida ◽  
Masashi Matsumotob

Abstract • This paper describes a computational study of the thermal and chemical nonequilibrium occuring in a rapidly expanding flow of high-temperature air transported as a free jet from an orifice into low-density stationary air. Translational, rotational, vibrational and electron temperatures are treated separately, and in particular the vibrational temperatures are individually treated; a multi-vibrational temperature model is adopted. The governing equations are axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations coupled with species vibrational energy, electron energy and species mass conservation equations. These equations are numerically solved, using the second order upwind TVD scheme of the Harten-Yee type. The calculations were carried out for two different orifice temperatures and also two different orifice diameters to investigate the effects of such parameters on the structure of a nonequilibrium free jet.


Author(s):  
Wolfgang Höhn

During the design of the compressor and turbine stages of today’s aeroengines, aerodynamically induced vibrations become increasingly important since higher blade load and better efficiency are desired. In this paper the development of a method based on the unsteady, compressible Navier-Stokes equations in two dimensions is described in order to study the physics of flutter for unsteady viscous flow around cascaded vibrating blades at stall. The governing equations are solved by a finite difference technique in boundary fitted coordinates. The numerical scheme uses the Advection Upstream Splitting Method to discretize the convective terms and central differences discretizing the viscous terms of the fully non-linear Navier-Stokes equations on a moving H-type mesh. The unsteady governing equations are explicitly and implicitly marched in time in a time-accurate way using a four stage Runge-Kutta scheme on a parallel computer or an implicit scheme of the Beam-Warming type on a single processor. Turbulence is modelled using the Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model. The blade flutter phenomenon is simulated by imposing a harmonic motion on the blade, which consists of harmonic body translation in two directions and a rotation, allowing an interblade phase angle between neighboring blades. Non-reflecting boundary conditions are used for the unsteady analysis at inlet and outlet of the computational domain. The computations are performed on multiple blade passages in order to account for nonlinear effects. A subsonic massively stalled unsteady flow case in a compressor cascade is studied. The results, compared with experiments and the predictions of other researchers, show reasonable agreement for inviscid and viscous flow cases for the investigated flow situations with respect to the Steady and unsteady pressure distribution on the blade in separated flow areas as well as the aeroelastic damping. The results show the applicability of the scheme for stalled flow around cascaded blades. As expected the viscous and inviscid computations show different results in regions where viscous effects are important, i.e. in separated flow areas. In particular, different predictions for inviscid and viscous flow for the aerodynamic damping for the investigated flow cases are found.


2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-86
Author(s):  
Włodzimierz Wróblewski ◽  
Sławomir Dykas ◽  
Tadeusz Chmielniak

Models for water steam condensing flows The paper presents a description of selected models dedicated to steam condensing flow modelling. The models are implemented into an in-house computational fluid dynamics code that has been successfully applied to wet steam flow calculation for many years now. All models use the same condensation model that has been validated against the majority of available experimental data. The state equations for vapour and liquid water, the physical model as well as the numerical techniques of solution to flow governing equations have been presented. For the single-fluid model, the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations for vapour/liquid mixture are solved, whereas the two-fluid model solves separate flow governing equations for the compressible, viscous and turbulent vapour phase and for the compressible and inviscid liquid phase. All described models have been compared with relation to the flow through the Laval nozzle.


It is shown that the boundary layer approximation to the flow of a viscous fluid past a flat plate of length l , generally valid near the plate when the Reynolds number Re is large, fails within a distance O( lRe -3/4 ) of the trailing edge. The appropriate governing equations in this neighbourhood are the full Navier- Stokes equations. On the basis of Imai (1966) these equations are linearized with respect to a uniform shear and are then completely solved by means of a Wiener-Hopf integral equation. The solution so obtained joins smoothly on to that of the boundary layer for a flat plate upstream of the trailing edge and for a wake downstream of the trailing edge. The contribution to the drag coefficient is found to be O ( Re -3/4 ) and the multiplicative constant is explicitly worked out for the linearized equations.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bao Qin ◽  
Yexin Zhou ◽  
Zheng Zhong

PurposeA diffusion-reaction-deformation coupled model is employed and implemented as a user-defined element (UEL) subroutine in the commercial finite element software package ABAQUS.Design/methodology/approachChemical reaction and diffusion are treated as two distinct processes by introducing the extent of reaction and the diffusion concentration as two kinds of independent variables, for which the independent governing equations for chemical reaction and diffusion processes are obtained. Furthermore, an exponential form of chemical kinetics, instead of the linearly phenomenological relation, between the reaction rate and the chemical affinity is used to describe reaction process. As a result, complex chemical reaction can be simulated, no matter it is around or away from equilibrium.FindingsTwo numerical examples are presented, one for validation of the model and another for the modeling of the deflection of a plane caused by a chemical reaction.Originality/value1. Independent governing equations for diffusion and reaction processes are given. 2. An exponential relation between the reaction rate and its driving force is employed. 3. The UEL subroutine is used to implement the finite element procedure.


2020 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Runze Li ◽  
Pengfei Zhu ◽  
Haijuan Zhang ◽  
Yao Wang ◽  
Jie Chen ◽  
...  

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