Mathematical Sciences Department
Harold J Gay Lecture Series
Lisa Fauci, Tulane University
Friday, February 2, 2024
4:00 pm
Salisbury Labs 104
Waving, rotating, buckling: filaments in flow at the microscale
The motion of undulating or rotating filaments in a fluid environment is a common element in many biological and engineered systems. Examples at the microscale include bacterial flagella propelling a cell body and engineered helical nanopropellers designed to penetrate mucosal tissue for drug delivery. Complex fluid environments, such as polymeric networks or confining geometries, can have dramatic effects upon the dynamics of filaments, whether rigid or flexible. In this talk we will present a mathematical and computational framework used to model these viscosity-dominated flows. We will investigate a few intriguing systems: actin-like fibers in straining flows that spontaneously buckle into helices, rigid helical filaments that penetrate and break a polymeric network, and the journey of extremely long and flexible insect flagella through narrow and tortuous female reproductive tracts.