Immersed Boundary Simulations of Active Fluid Droplets

We present numerical simulations of active fluid droplets immersed in an external fluid in 2-dimensions using an Immersed Boundary method to simulate the fluid droplet interface as a Lagrangian mesh. We present results from two example systems, firstly an active isotropic fluid boundary consisting of particles that can bind and unbind from the interface and generate surface tension gradients through active contractility. Secondly, a droplet filled with an active polar fluid with homeotropic anchoring at the droplet interface. These two systems demonstrate spontaneous symmetry breaking and steady state dynamics resembling cell motility and division and show complex feedback mechanisms with minimal degrees of freedom. The simulations outlined here will be useful for quantifying the wide range of dynamics observable in these active systems and modelling the effects of confinement in a consistent and adaptable way.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  PLoS ONE

• Publication date

  2016-05-05

• Fields of study

  Biology, Materials Science, Physics, Engineering, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0162474arXiv 1605.01621PMID 27606609PMCID 5015911
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Instabilities, motion and deformation of active fluid droplets

  2016cited by this paper
• Fluid-dynamical model for antisurfactants.

  2016cited by this paper
• A minimal physical model captures the shapes of crawling cells

  2015cited by this paper
• Modelling Spontaneous Motion and Deformation of Active Droplets

  2015cited by this paper
• Motility of active fluid drops on surfaces.

  2015cited by this paper
• Filling an emulsion drop with motile bacteria.

  2014cited by this paper
• A Coupled Immersed Interface and Level Set Method for Three-Dimensional Interfacial Flows with Insoluble Surfactant

  2014cited by this paper
• A conservative scheme for solving coupled surface-bulk convection-diffusion equations with an application to interfacial flows with soluble surfactant

  2014influential reference
• Collective surfing of chemically active particles.

  2014cited by this paper
• Topology and dynamics of active nematic vesicles

  2014cited by this paper
• Physics of Liquid Crystals

  2014cited by this paper
• Interfacial mechanisms in active emulsions.

  2014cited by this paper
• Defect annihilation and proliferation in active nematics.

  2013cited by this paper
• The actin cortex as an active wetting layer

  2013cited by this paper
• Measurement of the $\Lambda_b^0$, $\Xi_b^-$ and $\Omega_b^-$ baryon masses

  2013cited by this paper
• Evidence of b-jet quenching in PbPb collisions at √(s(NN))=2.76  TeV.

  2013cited by this paper
• Spontaneous division and motility in active nematic droplets.

  2013cited by this paper
• Hydrodynamics of soft active matter

  2013cited by this paper
• Spontaneous symmetry breaking in active droplets provides a generic route to motility

  2012influential reference
• Spontaneous motion in hierarchically assembled active matter

  2012cited by this paper
• The Taylor–Couette motor: spontaneous flows of active polar fluids between two coaxial cylinders

  2012cited by this paper
• Model for self-polarization and motility of keratocyte fragments

  2012cited by this paper
• Nonequilibrium steady states in polar active fluids

  2011cited by this paper
• Pattern formation in active fluids.

  2011cited by this paper
• Encapsulation of active cytoskeletal protein networks in cell-sized liposomes.

  2011cited by this paper
• Banding, excitability and chaos in active nematic suspensions

  2011cited by this paper
• Spontaneous contractility-mediated cortical flow generates cell migration in three-dimensional environments.

  2010cited by this paper
• The Mechanics and Statistics of Active Matter

  2010cited by this paper
• A DIFFUSE-INTERFACE APPROACH FOR MODELING TRANSPORT, DIFFUSION AND ADSORPTION/DESORPTION OF MATERIAL QUANTITIES ON A DEFORMABLE INTERFACE.

  2009cited by this paper
• Active gels as a description of the actin‐myosin cytoskeleton

  2009cited by this paper
• A quantitative analysis of contractility in active cytoskeletal protein networks.

  2008cited by this paper
• An immersed boundary method for interfacial flows with insoluble surfactant

  2008influential reference
• Contractility and retrograde flow in lamellipodium motion

  2006cited by this paper
• A comparison of the extended finite element method with the immersed interface method for elliptic equations with discontinuous coefficients and singular sources

  2006influential reference
• Effect of surfactants on the deformation of drops and bubbles in Navier–Stokes flow

  2006cited by this paper
• Continuum description of the cytoskeleton: ring formation in the cell cortex.

  2005cited by this paper
• Optical rheology of biological cells.

  2005cited by this paper
• Erratum: Asters, Vortices, and Rotating Spirals in Active Gels of Polar Filaments [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 , 078101 (2004)]

  2004cited by this paper
• A surfactant-conserving volume-of-fluid method for interfacial flows with insoluble surfactant

  2004cited by this paper
• Generic theory of active polar gels: a paradigm for cytoskeletal dynamics

  2004cited by this paper
• Self-concentration and large-scale coherence in bacterial dynamics.

  2004cited by this paper
• A diffuse-interface method for simulating two-phase flows of complex fluids

  2004cited by this paper
• Asters, vortices, and rotating spirals in active gels of polar filaments.

  2004influential reference
• The immersed boundary method

  2002cited by this paper
• A Finite-volume/Boundary-element Method for Flow Past Interfaces in the Presence of Surfactants, with Application to Shear Flow Past a Viscous Drop

  1998cited by this paper
• Marangoni effects on drop deformation in an extensional flow: The role of surfactant physical chemistry. I. Insoluble surfactants

  1996cited by this paper
• The physics of liquid crystals, 2nd edition: P.G. De Gennes and J. Prost, Published in 1993 by Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp 7,597 + xvi, ISBN: 0-19-852024

  1995cited by this paper
• A front-tracking method for viscous, incompressible, multi-fluid flows

  1992cited by this paper
• A front-tracking method for viscous, incompressible, multi-fluid flows

  1992cited by this paper
• The Fluid Dynamics of Heart Valves: Experimental, Theoretical, and Computational Methods

  1982cited by this paper
• Theory of Superfluidity

  1979cited by this paper
• Polarity of actin at the leading edge of cultured cells

  1978cited by this paper
• Marangoni Effects On Drop Deformation In AnExtensional Flow: The Role Of Surfactant PhysicalChemistry

  1970cited by this paper
• On the theory of superfluidity

  1947cited by this paper

• Active-noise-induced dynamic clustering of passive colloidal particles

  2025cites this paper
• The yoga of droplets: coalescence in complex fluids.

  2025cites this paper
• The mechanism how Pretubulysin-induced microtubule disassembly improves T cell search efficiency

  2025cites this paper
• Actin turnover required for adhesion-independent bleb migration

  2022cites this paper
• Vesicle shape transformations driven by confined active filaments

  2021cites this paper
• Kinematic and dynamic forcing strategies for predicting the transport of inertial capsules via a combined lattice Boltzmann – Immersed Boundary method

  2019cites this paper
• Computational modeling of active deformable membranes embedded in three-dimensional flows.

  2019cites this paper
• Contractile and chiral activities codetermine the helicity of swimming droplet trajectories

  2017cites this paper
• Instabilities, motion and deformation of active fluid droplets

  2016cites this paper
• CFD Simulations of Roll Motion of a Floating Ice Block in Waves using REEF3D

  2015cites this paper