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Phoretic motion of soft vesicles and droplets: an XFEM/particle-based numerical solution
1Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, 1111 Engineering Drive, Boulder, CO 80309-0427, USA.
Computational Mechanics
|December 5, 2017
Summary
Surface-active particles move along solute gradients via diffusiophoresis or the Marangoni effect. A new numerical model accurately captures these interactions, aiding the study of soft particle phoresis.
Area of Science:
- Physical Chemistry
- Soft Matter Physics
- Computational Fluid Dynamics
Background:
- Surface-active particles interact with solute molecules and migrate along concentration gradients.
- This migration can be driven by diffusiophoresis or the Marangoni effect, involving fluid-particle surface interactions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce a novel numerical approach for accurately capturing particle-fluid interactions.
- To provide an efficient tool for understanding and characterizing the phoresis of soft particles.
Main Methods:
- A hybrid numerical model combining the extended finite element method (XFEM) and a particle-based moving interface method.
- XFEM handles surface discontinuities, while the interface method tracks and updates deformations.
Main Results:
- The model was validated against analytical solutions.
- The approach was successfully applied to study deformable vesicle motion in varying solute and temperature gradients.
Conclusions:
- The developed numerical method accurately captures complex fluid-particle interactions.
- This tool facilitates the study of soft particle phoresis in complex environments.
