Numerical analysis of the angular motion of a neutrally buoyant spheroid in shear flow at small Reynolds numbers

Online Machine Learning for Accelerating Molecular Dynamics Modeling of Cells

We developed a biomechanics-informed online learning framework to learn the dynamics with ground truth generated with multiscale modeling simulation. It was built on Summit-like supercomputers, which were also used to benchmark and validate our framework on one physiologically significant modeling of deformable biological cells. We generalized the century-old equation of Jeffery orbits to a new equation of motion with additional parameters to account for the flow conditions and the cell deformability. Using simulation data at particle-based resolutions for flowing cells and the learned parameters from our framework, we validated the new equation by the motions, mostly rotations, of a human platelet in shear blood flow at various shear stresses and platelet deformability. Our online framework, which surrogates redundant computations in the conventional multiscale modeling by solutions of our learned equation, accelerates the conventional modeling by three orders of magnitude without visible loss of accuracy.

Orientational dynamics of a triaxial ellipsoid in simple shear flow: Influence of inertia

The motion of a single ellipsoidal particle in simple shear flow can provide valuable insights toward understanding suspension flows with nonspherical particles. Previously, extensive studies have been performed on the ellipsoidal particle with rotational symmetry, a so-called spheroid. The nearly prolate ellipsoid (one major and two minor axes of almost equal size) is known to perform quasiperiodic or even chaotic orbits in the absence of inertia. With small particle inertia, the particle is also known to drift toward this irregular motion. However, it is not previously understood what effects from fluid inertia could be, which is of highest importance for particles close to neutral buoyancy. Here, we find that fluid inertia is acting strongly to suppress the chaotic motion and only very weak fluid inertia is sufficient to stabilize a rotation around the middle axis. The mechanism responsible for this transition is believed to be centrifugal forces acting on fluid, which is dragged along with the rotational motion of the particle. With moderate fluid inertia, it is found that nearly prolate triaxial particles behave similarly to the perfectly spheroidal particles. Finally, we also are able to provide predictions about the stable rotational states for the general triaxial ellipsoid in simple shear with weak inertia.

Chaotic rotation of a spheroidal particle in simple shear flow

The angular motion of a neutrally buoyant prolate spheroidal particle in simple shear flow has previously been found to follow two-dimensional dynamics similar to a Duffing-van der Pol oscillator as a consequence of inertia of the surrounding fluid. This behavior was however only present if the aspect ratio is large enough. When decreasing the particle aspect ratio, the particle could be found to perform period-doubled or chaotic orbits as effects of particle inertia also influence the dynamics. In this work, it is demonstrated that the onset of complex dynamics is through a Shilnikov bifurcation as the log-rolling state (particle is rotating around its symmetry axis, which is parallel to the vorticity direction) is transformed from a regular saddle node into a saddle focus when particle inertia is increased. Furthermore, it is shown that the same also applies for the two dimensional Duffing-van der Pol oscillator when including inertial terms. These results open up the possibility of developing a reduced model to mimic the influence of both fluid and particle inertia on the angular dynamics of spheroidal particles in simple shear flow, which can be used in fluid simulations with Lagrangian particles.

Angular Dynamics of a Small Particle in Turbulence

We compute the angular dynamics of a neutrally buoyant nearly spherical particle immersed in an unsteady fluid. We assume that the particle is small, that its translational slip velocity is negligible, and that unsteady and convective inertia are small perturbations. We derive an approximation for the torque on the particle that determines the first inertial corrections to Jeffery's equation. These corrections arise as a consequence of local vortex stretching and can be substantial in turbulence, where local vortex stretching is strong and closely linked to the irreversibility of turbulence.