Performance of a Helical Microswimmer Traversing a Discrete Viscoelastic Network with Dynamic Remodeling
Performance of a Helical Microswimmer Traversing a Discrete Viscoelastic Network with Dynamic Remodeling
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DOI：
10.3390/fluids7080257
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发表时间：
2022-07
期刊：
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
Rudi Schuech;R. Cortez;L. Fauci
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Rudi Schuech;R. Cortez;L. Fauci
微生物经常在由具有悬浮微结构（例如弹性聚合物和丝状网络）的粘性流体组成的复杂环境中生存。这些微观结构可以具有与微生物相似的长度尺度，从而导致复杂的游泳动力学。一些微生物分泌的酶可以动态改变它们移动所通过的粘弹性网络的弹性特性。除了生物有机体之外，微型机器人的设计目标还包括粘蛋白凝胶渗透或溶解血栓。为了深入了解游泳性能和网络重塑之间的耦合，我们使用正则化斯托克斯莱特边界元方法来计算由旋转球体和反向旋转螺旋鞭毛组成的微型游泳器的运动。粘弹性网络由浸入粘性流体中的虚拟弹性连杆连接的点网络表示。在这里，当游泳者的细胞体落在距链接给定距离内时，我们通过动态破坏弹性链接来模拟细菌或微型机器人对网络的酶促溶解。我们研究了微生物在不同材料特性的网络中渗透和移动时的游泳性能，并检查了网络重塑的效果。
Microorganisms often navigate a complex environment composed of a viscous fluid with suspended microstructures such as elastic polymers and filamentous networks. These microstructures can have similar length scales to the microorganisms, leading to complex swimming dynamics. Some microorganisms secrete enzymes that dynamically change the elastic properties of the viscoelastic networks through which they move. In addition to biological organisms, microrobots have been engineered with the goals of mucin gel penetration or dissolving blood clots. In order to gain insight into the coupling between swimming performance and network remodeling, we used a regularized Stokeslet boundary element method to compute the motion of a microswimmer consisting of a rotating spherical body and counter-rotating helical flagellum. The viscoelastic network is represented by a network of points connected by virtual elastic linkages immersed in a viscous fluid. Here, we model the enzymatic dissolution of the network by bacteria or microrobots by dynamically breaking elastic linkages when the cell body of the swimmer falls within a given distance from the link. We investigate the swimming performance of the microbes as they penetrate and move through networks of different material properties, and also examine the effect of network remodeling.