Project Details
Description
2 Summary of work at Northwestern University
i) Implementation of computational methods for the coupling of a viscous
uid to a collec-
tion of passive or active immersed rigid bodies, as described in detail in Section 5 of the
proposal. The developed techniques will become part of the IBAMR software frame-
work. As part of this key component we will construct methods that are scalable, and,
unlike existing techniques, meet the following requirements: (a) Do not employ time
splitting and are thus suitable for the steady Stokes (viscous{dominated) regime; (b)
Strictly enforce the rigidity constraint; and (c) Ensure
uctuation{dissipation balance
in the overdamped limit even in the presence of nontrivial boundary conditions.
ii) Application of the developed techniques to nano-particle transport, as detailed in Section
2 of the proposal and discussed in the next section.
1
iii) Co{PI Patankar is developing a novel approach based on computer animation to teach
the fundamental principles in his research �eld. Sample videos can be found on the
Patankar Group website (http://patankar.mech.northwestern.edu/). Similar modules
will be created based on the work done this proposal. The educational videos will
be broadly distributed through the internet by using YouTube. In addition, Co{PI
Patankar is working on an innovative idea of creating 10 minute videos of the major
research papers from his group. This idea was motivated by the need to facilitate
e�cient learning of concepts presented in research papers. These videos will also be
put on YouTube. The eventual goal is to create a community web resource where other
investigators can drop in videos about their own research work.
3 Application to nano-particle transport
Nanoparticles passing through sub{micrometer or nanoscale diameter pore are being studied
in variety of contexts. Three examples are summarized here. First example is nanopore{
based platforms to di�erentiate between base pairs of nucleic acid chains as the molecule
threads through the pore [14, 15]. The passage of ions in the electrolyte are obstructed when
a biomolecule translocates through the pore, thus reducing the ionic current. This could
provide low-cost, high{throughput means of DNA sequencing. Single particle translocation
are being studied to better understand the mechanisms [16]. Second example pertains to
stimuli responsive gates and ion channels [17, 18]. Imagine polyelectrolyte{modi�ed nano
pores with diameters on the scale of the Debye length. Our understanding of the such systems
is limited because most current analyses ignore the fully coupled nature of the forced{di�usive
transport of particles and con�gurational changes of the polyelectrolytes in the pore. These
interactions impact on the particle translocation as well as ionic
uxes through the pore.
A better understanding of the conductance of chemically modi�ed nano
uidic devices is
important for applications in diverse areas, such as energy transduction, analytical chemistry,
ionic circuits, or proton exchange membranes (see [17, 18] and references therein). Third
example is the translocation through the nuclear pore complex (NPC). The pore geometry
and the sequence and anchoring position of the unfolded domains of the nucleoporin proteins
play a major role in selective di�usive transport through the pore [19].
In examples above, di�usive (Brownian), convective (due to mean
ow), electrically
driven transport are often strongly coupled which a�ect particle translocation or current
ow. Additionally, steric in
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 7/1/14 → 6/30/18 |
Funding
- National Science Foundation (DMS-1418672)
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