Rotation of a low-Reynolds-number watermill: theory and simulations

DOI10.1017/JFM.2018.416zbMATH Open1415.76145arXiv1906.01763OpenAlexW2808186977MaRDI QIDQ4582947FDOQ4582947

Authors: Lailai Zhu, Howard A. Stone 

Publication date: 27 August 2018

Published in: Journal of Fluid Mechanics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Recent experiments have demonstrated that small-scale rotary devices installed in a microfluidic channel can be driven passively by the underlying flow alone without resorting to conventionally applied magnetic or electric fields. In this work, we conduct a theoretical and numerical study on such a flow-driven "watermill" at low Reynolds number, focusing on its hydrodynamic features. We model the watermill by a collection of equally-spaced rigid rods. Based on the classical resistive force (RF) theory and direct numerical simulations, we compute the watermill's instantaneous rotational velocity as a function of its rod number $N$, position and orientation. When $Ngeq4$, the RF theory predicts that the watermill's rotational velocity is independent of $N$ and its orientation, implying the full rotational symmetry (of infinity order), even though the geometrical configuration exhibits a lower-fold rotational symmetry; the numerical solutions including hydrodynamic interactions show a weak dependence on $N$ and the orientation. In addition, we adopt a dynamical system approach to identify the equilibrium positions of the watermill and analyse their stability. We further compare the theoretically and numerically derived rotational velocities, which agree with each other in general, while considerable discrepancy arises in certain configurations owing to the hydrodynamic interactions neglected by the RF theory. We confirm this conclusion by employing the RF-based asymptotic framework incorporating hydrodynamic interactions for a simpler watermill consisting of two or three rods and we show that accounting for hydrodynamic interactions can significantly enhance the accuracy of the theoretical predictions.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.01763

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zbMATH Keywords

microfluidicsmemslow-Reynolds-number flowsnems

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Stokes and related (Oseen, etc.) flows (76D07) General theory of rotating fluids (76U05)

Cites Work

• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Low-Reynolds-number fall of slender cylinders near boundaries
• On the propulsion of micro-organisms near solid boundaries
• A fast platform for simulating semi-flexible fiber suspensions applied to cell mechanics
• Lubrication analysis and boundary integral simulations of a viscous micropump
• Rods falling near a vertical wall
• Slender Body Interactions for Low Reynolds Numbers—Part I: Body-Wall Interactions

Cited In (3)

• Trajectory and flow properties for a rod spinning in a viscous fluid. Part 1. An exact solution
• Theoretical analysis of rolling fluid turbines
• Numerical and experimental characterization of a family of two–roll–mill flows

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