Innovative methods for the dynamics of immersed structures in complex fluids

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

The investigator and collaborators propose to develop a new class of Immersed Boundary-based methods to investigate the interaction of a large number of immersed structures in 2D and 3D with a complex (non-Newtonian) fluid. These innovative methods will have the computational efficiency demanded by some outstanding, formidable problems of flow-structure interaction in complex fluids and will establish new paradigms in the modeling and simulation of these type of systems. To achieve this, the investigator and the project's participants will introduce fundamentally innovative approaches for the fast computation of the influence of the structure on the flow, for the rapid solution of robust, implicit discretizations, and for model building and computation in the presence of a complex fluid in important applications. While the new approaches will be designed with concrete problems in mind (collective sperm motility in a complex fluid and peristaltic pumping), their applicability will be broad. A myriad of technologically and scientifically important problems can be described as the interaction of a flow and immersed structures that could be elastic or rigid and could come in a broad range of shapes and length scales, from nano to macro. The swimming of micro-organisms like cellular and flagellar locomotion, sperm motility, insect flight, aerodynamic design, cardiac fluid dynamics, and processing of polymeric materials are just a few important examples. There is now a recognized, pressing need to investigate these dynamics in more realistic fluid environments which take into account the frequent viscoelastic character of the underlying complex flow. The project focuses on the development of fluid models and efficient computational tools to investigate this important class of problems. Research and education will be vigorously integrated in a multi-disciplinary environment with a sustained effort to promote and broaden the participation of underrepresented groups, with the active participation of undergraduates, with innovative pedagogic initiatives and modes of collaboration, and with ties with the industrial sector.