Collaborative Research: FRG: Understanding and Controlling Active Fluids through Modeling, Simulation, and Experiment

合作研究：FRG：通过建模、模拟和实验理解和控制活性流体

• 批准号: 1463962
• 负责人: Michael Shelley
• 金额: $ 56.25万
• 依托单位: New York University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1463962&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; FRG; Understanding; Controlling

Soft active materials are collections of particles, cells, or molecules that are capable of converting chemical energy from their environment into motion and mechanical stresses. Examples include swimming microorganisms, cellular extracts, biological polymers, and molecular motors, as well as a wealth of synthetic particles designed to mimic biological systems. These active systems, which have generated considerable excitement over the last decade in many disciplines from engineering to physics to applied mathematics, evince behaviors that are fundamentally different from traditional passive materials, and their understanding is just beginning to illuminate long-standing problems in biology and to suggest new engineering devices. This research project aims to use experiments, modeling, and simulations, to further enhance understanding of a variety of active materials. The project will also involve training through research involvement of postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates.The aim of this project is to use a combination of modeling, mathematical analysis, numerical simulations, and experiments to explore the dynamics of archetypal active fluids as their microstructural components interact with obstacles, walls, and each other. Computational and coarse-grained models will explore the interaction of microswimmers, individually and collectively, with boundaries and obstacles. Microfluidic environments will be fabricated to explore how active particle transport is affected and controlled by boundaries and obstacles, and tools of shape optimization will be used to guide the design. Specialized particles will be fabricated to elucidate different aspects of active matter. New types of active matter will be explored, both by considering modifications in particle-scale activity and system-scale confinement. These investigations will include detailed and coarse-grained computational models of recently synthesized active fluids in which immersed microtubules interact through motor-protein cross-linking and pulling, as well as a new active matter system in which particle activity couples to interfacial forces to drive large-scale flows.

软活性材料是颗粒、细胞或分子的集合，能够将环境中的化学能转化为运动和机械应力。例子包括游动微生物、细胞提取物、生物聚合物和分子马达，以及大量旨在模拟生物系统的合成颗粒。这些主动系统在过去十年中在从工程到物理学再到应用数学的许多学科中引起了相当大的兴奋，它们表现出与传统被动材料根本不同的行为，并且它们的理解才刚刚开始阐明生物学和应用领域中长期存在的问题。建议新的工程设备。该研究项目旨在利用实验、建模和模拟，进一步加深对各种活性材料的理解。该项目还将通过博士后研究人员、研究生和本科生的研究参与进行培训。该项目的目的是结合建模、数学分析、数值模拟和实验来探索原型活性流体的动力学作为其微观结构组件与障碍物、墙壁以及彼此之间相互作用。计算和粗粒度模型将探索微型游泳者单独和集体与边界和障碍物的相互作用。将制造微流体环境，以探索边界和障碍物如何影响和控制活性粒子传输，并将使用形状优化工具来指导设计。将制造专门的粒子来阐明活性物质的不同方面。将通过考虑粒子尺度活动和系统尺度限制的修改来探索新型活性物质。这些研究将包括最近合成的活性流体的详细和粗粒度计算模型，其中浸入的微管通过运动蛋白交联和牵引相互作用，以及新的活性物质系统，其中粒子活动与界面力耦合以驱动大-规模流量。