Alladi Ramakrishnan Hall

Flows at the microscale due to non-equilibrium energy tranduction

Abhrajit Laskar

IMSc

I will discuss our recent work (Physical Review Letters, 2012 and Nature Scientific Reports, 2013) on hydrodynamic flows generated at the microscale due to the conversion of chemical energy to mechanical work. Such flows can both translate and rotate objects at low Reynolds number. Thus they can serve as useful models for both swimming micro-organisms and synthetic machines capable of self-propulsion in viscous fluids. We will present a minimal model for a polymer that shows remarkable life-like motion reminiscent of cilia and flagella. This polymer can be used as a propulsion engine at microscale.