Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T17:53:53.780Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Swimming in shear

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2014

David Saintillan
David Saintillan*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: dstn@ucsd.edu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The complex patterns observed in experiments on suspensions of swimming cells undergoing bioconvection have fascinated biologists, physicists and mathematicians alike for over a century. Theoretical models developed over the last few decades have shown a strong similarity with Rayleigh–Bénard thermal convection, albeit with a richer dynamical behaviour due to the orientational degrees of freedom of the cells. In a recent paper, Hwang & Pedley (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 738, 2014, pp. 522–562) revisit previous models for bioconvection to investigate the effects of an external shear flow on pattern formation. In addition to casting light on new mechanisms for instability, their study demonstrates a subtle interplay between shear, swimming motions and bioconvection patterns.

JFM classification

Biological Fluid Dynamics: Bioconvection Instability: Instability Biological Fluid Dynamics: Micro-organism dynamics
Type
Focus on Fluids
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 744 , 10 April 2014 , pp. 1 - 4
Copyright
© 2014 Cambridge University Press 

References

Bearon, R. N., Bees, M. A. & Croze, O. A. 2012 Biased swimming cells do not disperse in pipes as tracers: a population model based on microscale behaviour. Phys. Fluids 24, 121902.Google Scholar
Bees, M. A. & Hill, N. A. 1998 Linear bioconvection in a suspension of randomly swimming, gyrotactic micro-organisms. Phys. Fluids 10, 1864–1881.Google Scholar
Berg, H. C. 1993 Random Walks in Biology. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Childress, S., Levandowsky, M. & Spiegel, E. A. 1975 Pattern formation in a suspension of swimming micro-organisms: equations and stability theory. J. Fluid Mech. 63, 591–613.Google Scholar
Croze, O. A., Ashraf, E. E. & Bees, M. A. 2010 Sheared bioconvection in a horizontal tube. Phys. Biol. 7, 046001.Google Scholar
Drazin, P. G. & Reid, W. H. 1981 Hydrodynamic Stability. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Durham, W. M., Climent, E., Barry, M., De Lillo, F., Boffetta, G., Cencini, M. & Stocker, R. 2013 Turbulence drives microscale patches of motile phytoplankton. Nat. Commun. 4, 2148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Durham, W. M., Kessler, J. O. & Stocker, R. 2009 Disruption of vertical motility by shear triggers formation of thin phytoplankton layers. Science 323, 1067–1070.Google Scholar
Gallagher, A. P. & Mercer, A. McD. 1965 On the behavior of a small disturbance in plane Couette flow with a temperature gradient. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 286, 117–128.Google Scholar
Guasto, J. S., Rusconi, R. & Stocker, R. 2012 Fluid mechanics of planktonic microorganisms. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 44, 373–400.Google Scholar
Hwang, Y. & Pedley, T. J. 2014 Bioconvection under uniform shear: linear stability analysis. J. Fluid Mech. 738, 522–562.Google Scholar
Koch, D. L. & Shaqfeh, E. S. G. 1989 The instability of a dispersion of sedimenting spheroids. J. Fluid Mech. 209, 521–541.Google Scholar
Pedley, T. J. 2010 Instability of uniform microorganism suspensions revisited. J. Fluid Mech. 647, 335–359.Google Scholar
Pedley, T. J., Hill, N. A. & Kessler, J. O. 1988 The growth of bioconvection patterns in a uniform suspension of gyrotactic micro-organisms. J. Fluid Mech. 195, 223–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedley, T. J. & Kessler, J. O. 1990 A new continuum model for suspensions of gyrotactic micro-organisms. J. Fluid Mech. 212, 47–70.Google Scholar
Platt, J. R. 1961 Bioconvection patterns in cultures of free-swimming organisms. Science 133, 1766–1767.Google Scholar
Saintillan, D. & Shelley, M. J. 2013 Active suspensions and their nonlinear models. C. R. Physique 14, 497–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar