Speaker: Yoichiro Mori, UPenn
Title: Filaments and Open Membranes in Biofluid Mechanics
Abstract: Systems in which elastic structures interact with the surrounding fluid abound in biophysics. Here, we will focus on problems in which a one-dimensional structure interacts with the surrounding 3D fluid. In contrast to problems in which 2D surfaces interact with a 3D fluid, there are significant analytical and computational issues that have not yet been resolved. First, we discuss slender body theory, which concerns the dynamics of thin filaments in 3D Stokes flow. We formulate a novel boundary value problem for thin filaments and prove the validity and demonstrate limitations of slender body approximation, a commonly used method for the study of such problems. As a second problem, we discuss the problem of open membrane dynamics. We formulate the equations and develop a numerical method when the membrane geometry is axisymmetric. Grid refinement is used near the membrane edge to capture the singularity in the stress. The simulated dynamics of membrane hole closure is compared with simpler ODE models.
In person attendance at this seminar is only open to Columbia Univesity affiliates. External guests are welcome to attend remotely. Please contact [email protected] if you need the Zoom link for this seminar.
