Modeling rigid filament interaction under oscillatory flow using immersed boundary method

Abstract

The thread-like biological filament structures can enhance many processes such as fluid transport, locomotion, defence against foreign bodies etc. Researchers have tried to mimic these filament movements to improve fluid transport, mixing, drug delivery for microfluidic applications. These biological filaments can be modelled as slender rigid filaments which can be either active or passive. Active filaments move on their own thus causing a disruption in the fluid domain in close vicinity while passive filaments undergo motion depending upon the fluid flow past them. The dynamics of both active and passive filaments in low Reynolds number flow has immense research potential. In the case of passive filament, the nature of the incoming flow field is an important factor that affects the flow physics around the filament. This paper studies the flow dynamics of vertical and inclined passive rigid filaments in an oscillatory flow. The effect of change in flow conditions is studied by varying the Reynolds and Strouhal numbers. The simulation involves fluid-structure interaction which is implemented with the help of continuous forcing based immersed boundary (IB) method using finite volume discretization. This is a preliminary work towards modelling active filaments under different fluid flow conditions in channel in the near future. © 2022