Session MV: Swimming V: Micro-organisms II
8:00 AM–10:10 AM, Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Room: 205A-D
Chair: Timothy J. Pedley, University of Cambridge
Abstract ID: BAPS.2009.DFD.MV.4
Abstract: MV.00004 : Linear Stability for Models of Active Suspensions
8:39 AM–8:52 AM
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Abstract 
Authors:
Christel Hohenegger
(Courant Institute New York University)
Michael Shelley
(Courant Institute New York University)
Recent work by Saintillan \& Shelley has modeled the dynamics of active suspensions, such as swirling bacterial baths, through a modification of Doi rod theory. However, the sign of the dipolar extra stress can be of the opposite sign of Doi theory, and this leads to large-scale flow instability. We investigate the structure of this system linearized near a state of isotropy and uniformity. We show that concentration fluctuations generally decay, and that while long-wave instability depends upon the particular swimming mechanism, short-wave stability does not. This suggests that the model is well-posed, even in the absence of translational and rotational di ffusion e ffects.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2009.DFD.MV.4