Gyrotaxis in a Steady Vortical Flow
Author(s)
Durham, William M.; Climent, Eric; Stocker, Roman
DownloadDurham-2011-Gyrotaxis in a Stead.pdf (2.516Mb)
PUBLISHER_POLICY
Publisher Policy
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
We show that gyrotactic motility within a steady vortical flow leads to tightly clustered aggregations of microorganisms. Two dimensionless numbers, characterizing the relative swimming speed and stability against overturning by vorticity, govern the coupling between motility and flow. Exploration of parameter space reveals a striking array of patchiness regimes. Aggregations are found to form within a few overturning time scales, suggesting that vortical flows might be capable of efficiently separating species with different motility characteristics.
Date issued
2011-06Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringJournal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Durham, William, Eric Climent, and Roman Stocker. “Gyrotaxis in a Steady Vortical Flow.” Physical Review Letters 106 (2011). © 2011 American Physical Society.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0031-9007