Collaborative Research: FRG: Understanding and Controlling Active Fluids through Modeling, Simulation, and Experiment

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Soft active materials are collections of particles, cells, or molecules that are capable of converting chemical energy from their environment into motion and mechanical stresses. Examples include swimming microorganisms, cellular extracts, biological polymers, and molecular motors, as well as a wealth of synthetic particles designed to mimic biological systems. These active systems, which have generated considerable excitement over the last decade in many disciplines from engineering to physics to applied mathematics, evince behaviors that are fundamentally different from traditional passive materials, and their understanding is just beginning to illuminate long-standing problems in biology and to suggest new engineering devices. This research project aims to use experiments, modeling, and simulations, to further enhance understanding of a variety of active materials. The project will also involve training through research involvement of postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates.The aim of this project is to use a combination of modeling, mathematical analysis, numerical simulations, and experiments to explore the dynamics of archetypal active fluids as their microstructural components interact with obstacles, walls, and each other. Computational and coarse-grained models will explore the interaction of microswimmers, individually and collectively, with boundaries and obstacles. Microfluidic environments will be fabricated to explore how active particle transport is affected and controlled by boundaries and obstacles, and tools of shape optimization will be used to guide the design. Specialized particles will be fabricated to elucidate different aspects of active matter. New types of active matter will be explored, both by considering modifications in particle-scale activity and system-scale confinement. These investigations will include detailed and coarse-grained computational models of recently synthesized active fluids in which immersed microtubules interact through motor-protein cross-linking and pulling, as well as a new active matter system in which particle activity couples to interfacial forces to drive large-scale flows.