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A regularised singularity approach to phoretic problems.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Montenegro-Johnson, Thomas D 
Michelin, Sébastien 

Abstract

An efficient, accurate, and flexible numerical method is proposed for the solution of the swimming problem of one or more autophoretic particles in the purely diffusive limit. The method relies on successive boundary element solutions of the Laplacian and the Stokes flow equations using regularised Green's functions for swift, simple implementations, an extension of the well-known method of "regularised stokeslets" for Stokes flow problems. The boundary element method is particularly suitable for phoretic problems, since no quantities in the domain bulk are required to compute the swimming velocity. For time-dependent problems, the method requires no re-meshing and simple boundaries such as a plane wall may be added at no increase to the size of the linear system through the method of images. The method is validated against two classical examples for which an analytical or semi-analytical solution is known, a two-sphere system and a Janus particle, and provides a rigorous computational pipeline to address further problems with complex geometry and multiple bodies.

Description

Keywords

Tips and Tricks, Diffusion, Models, Theoretical, Surface Properties

Journal Title

Eur Phys J E Soft Matter

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1292-8941
1292-895X

Volume Title

38

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
TDMJ is supported by a Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellowship. SM acknowledges the support of the French Ministry of Defense (DGA). This work was funded in part by a European Union Marie Curie CIG Grant to EL.