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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Assembly and Characterization of an External Driver for the Generation of Sub-Kilohertz Oscillatory Flow in Microchannels
Published on: January 28, 2022
Communications: Drift and diffusion in a tube of periodically varying diameter. Driving force induced intermittency
Alexander M Berezhkovskii1, Leonardo Dagdug, Yurii A Makhnovskii
1Mathematical and Statistical Computing Laboratory, Division of Computational Bioscience, Center for Information Technology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. berezh@helix.nih.gov
Abstract:
We show that the effect of driving force F on the effective mobility and diffusion coefficient of a particle in a tube formed by identical compartments may be qualitatively different depending on the compartment shape. In tubes formed by cylindrical (spherical) compartments the mobility monotonically decreases (increases) with F and the diffusion coefficient diverges (remains finite) as F tends to infinity. In tubes formed by cylindrical compartments, at large F there is intermittency in the particle transitions between openings connecting neighboring compartments.
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