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Macrotransport theory for diffusiophoretic colloids and chemotactic microorganisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2021

Henry C.W. Chu*
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Stephen Garoff
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Center for Complex Fluids Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Robert D. Tilton
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Center for Complex Fluids Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Aditya S. Khair
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering and Center for Complex Fluids Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: h.chu@ufl.edu

Abstract

We conduct an asymptotic analysis to derive a macrotransport equation for the long-time transport of a chemotactic/diffusiophoretic colloidal species in a uniform circular tube under a steady, laminar, pressure-driven flow and transient solute gradient. The solute gradient drives a ‘log-sensing’ advective flux of the colloidal species, which competes with Taylor dispersion due to the hydrodynamic flow. We demonstrate excellent agreement between the macrotransport equation and direct numerical solution of the full advection–diffusion equation for the colloidal species transport. In addition to its accuracy, the macrotransport equation requires $O(10^3)$ times less computational runtime than direct numerical solution of the advection–diffusion equation. Via scaling arguments, we identify three regimes of the colloidal species macrotransport, which span from chemotactic/diffusiophoretic-dominated macrotransport to the familiar Taylor dispersion regime, where macrotransport is dominated by the hydrodynamic flow. Finally, we discuss generalization of the macrotransport equation to channels of arbitrary (but constant) cross-section and to incorporate more sophisticated models of chemotactic fluxes. The macrotransport framework developed here will broaden the scope of designing chemotactic/diffusiophoretic transport systems by elucidating the interplay of macrotransport due to chemotaxis/diffusiophoresis and hydrodynamic flow.

Information

Type
JFM Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Illustration of Taylor hydrodynamic dispersion.

Figure 1

Figure 2. A diffusiophoretic/chemotactic colloidal species in a solute gradient inside a uniform, circular channel of radius $R$ under an incompressible, unidirectional hydrodynamic flow $v$. The solute gradient induces a chemical-driven flow $\boldsymbol {u}$ of the colloids via diffusiophoresis/chemotaxis, where the colloids can be attracted (as shown) or repelled.

Figure 2

Figure 3. Time evolution of the normalized averaged (a) solute $\bar {S}/(Q_s/L)$ and (b,c) colloidal species $\bar {C}/(Q_c/L)$ concentration profiles for $D_c/D_s = 1$, $\epsilon = 5 \times 10^{-3}$ and $Pe = 1$. In (b), $M/D_s = 5$; in (c), $M/D_s = 25$. Dotted lines: macrotransport theory, (2.2) and (2.10); solid lines: two-dimensional transport equations, (2.1) and (2.3).

Figure 3

Figure 4. Normalized concentration profiles of the solute $\hat {S} = S/(Q_s/L)$ and colloidal species $\hat {C} = C/(Q_c/L)$ obtained from two-dimensional transport equations, (2.1) and (2.3). Parameters for computation are the same as figure 3(a,b).

Figure 4

Figure 5. Time evolution of the normalized averaged (a) solute $\bar {S}/(Q_s/L)$ and (b-c) colloidal species $\bar {C}/(Q_c/L)$ concentration profiles for $D_c/D_s = 1$, $\epsilon = 5 \times 10^{-3}$, and $Pe = 1$. In (b), $M/D_s = 0$; in (c), $M/D_s = -1$. Dotted lines: macrotransport theory, (2.2) and (2.10); solid lines: two-dimensional transport equations, (2.1) and (2.3).

Figure 5

Figure 6. Time evolution of the normalized averaged (a) solute $\bar {S}/(Q_s/L)$ and (b) colloidal species $\bar {C}/(Q_c/L)$ concentration profiles for $D_c/D_s = 1$, $\epsilon = 5 \times 10^{-4}$, $Pe = 10$ and $M/D_s = 1$. Dotted lines: macrotransport theory, (2.2) and (2.10); solid lines: two-dimensional transport equations, (2.1) and (2.3).

Figure 6

Figure 7. Time evolution of the normalized averaged (a) solute $\bar {S}/(Q_s/L)$ and (b-c) colloidal species $\bar {C}/(Q_c/L)$ concentration profiles for $D_c/D_s = 1$, $\epsilon = 5 \times 10^{-5}$ and $Pe = 100$. In (b), $M/D_s = 0$; in (c), $M/D_s = 1$. Dotted lines: macrotransport theory, (2.2) and (2.10); solid lines: two-dimensional transport equations, (2.1) and (2.3).

Figure 7

Figure 8. Time evolution of the normalized averaged (a) solute $\bar {S}/(Q_s/L)$ and (b) colloidal species $\bar {C}/(Q_c/L)$ concentration profiles for $D_c/D_s = 0.1$, $\epsilon = 5 \times 10^{-3}$, $Pe = 0.1$ and $M/D_s = 1$. Dotted lines: macrotransport theory, (2.2) and (2.10); solid lines: two-dimensional transport equations, (2.1) and (2.3).