A Boundary Integral Method for Anisotropic Stokes Flow

Abstract

Microrheology is a relatively new technique that, just like bulk rheology, can be employed to extract the mechanical properties of viscoelastic materials. Many such materials, e.g., collagen, manifest anisotropic properties. Different levels of anisotropy (in viscosity) are created in a lab, and the drag on a slowing-moving particle therein is measured. In an isotropic medium, the drag on a spherical moving particle is given by the Stokes law. Our goal is to calculate the drag when the medium is anisotropic, so we are seeking a generalization of the Stokes law. We use a boundary integral method. We first derive the BIM formulation, and then demonstrate some preliminary computational results. We compare the results to the anisotropic case and an asymptotic solution.

Event Topic

Stochastic & Multiscale Modeling and Computation