Eur. Phys. J. E (2021) 44: 150
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/s10189-021-00153-3

Regular Article - Soft Matter

Migration of active filaments under Poiseuille flow in a microcapillary tube

Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal, 462066, India

^b spsingh@iiserb.ac.in

Received: 24 August 2021
Accepted: 20 November 2021
Published online: 15 December 2021

Abstract

We present a comprehensive study of active filaments confined in a cylindrical channel under Poiseuille flow. The activity drives the filament towards the channel boundary, whereas external fluid flow migrates the filament away from the boundary. This migration further shifts towards the centre for higher flow strength. The migration behaviour of the filaments is presented in terms of the alignment order parameter that shows the alignment grows with shear and activity. Further, we have also addressed the role of length of filament on the migration behaviour, which suggests higher migration for larger filaments. Moreover, we discuss the polar ordering of filaments as a function of distance from the centre of channel that displays upstream motion near the boundary and downstream motion at the centre of the tube.