Weakly nonlinear analysis of pattern formation in active suspensions

Laurel Ohm, Michael J. Shelley

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We consider the Saintillan-Shelley kinetic model of active rod-like particles in Stokes flow (Saintillan & Shelley, Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 100, issue 17, 2008a, 178103; Saintillan & Shelley, Phys. Fluids, vol. 20, issue 12, 2008b, 123304), for which the uniform isotropic suspension of pusher particles is known to be unstable in certain settings. Through weakly nonlinear analysis accompanied by numerical simulations, we determine exactly how the isotropic steady state loses stability in different parameter regimes. We study each of the various types of bifurcations admitted by the system, including both subcritical and supercritical Hopf and pitchfork bifurcations. Elucidating this system's behaviour near these bifurcations provides a theoretical means of comparing this model with other physical systems that transition to turbulence, and makes predictions about the nature of bifurcations in active suspensions that can be explored experimentally.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numberA53
JournalJournal of Fluid Mechanics
Volume942
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 10 2022

Keywords

  • active matter
  • collective behaviour
  • micro-organism dynamics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Applied Mathematics

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