Bulletin of the American Physical Society
76th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics
Sunday–Tuesday, November 19–21, 2023; Washington, DC
Session R09: Biofluids: Locomotion, Non-Newtonian Fluids
1:50 PM–3:34 PM,
Monday, November 20, 2023
Room: 140A
Chair: Sarah Hormozi, Cornell University
Abstract: R09.00007 : Enhanced upstream swimming of bacteria in complex fluids: part I, shear-thinning.*
3:08 PM–3:21 PM
Presenter:
Albane Théry
(Department of Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania)
Authors:
Albane Théry
(Department of Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania)
Bryan O Maldonado
(University of Pennsylvania)
Arnold Mathijssen
(University of Pennsylvania)
Paulo E Arratia
(University of Pennsylvania)
In this talk, we present experimental evidence that shear-thinning (ST) viscosity can significantly enhance rheotaxis of the bacteria E. coli swimming near surfaces relative to Newtonian fluids. A simple model that accounts for the modified interaction of E. coli with surface due to ST effects captures the main experimental observations, namely a transition to rheotaxis occurring at lower flow rates and an increased alignment of upstream swimmers. Importantly, this analysis singles out traits that could predict the spreading ability of a population or of individual swimming E. coli. Our results for shear-thinning fluids provide an essential step towards understanding the spreading of swimming bacteria in more complex biological fluids.
*A.T. received support from the Simons Foundation through the Math + X grant awarded to the University of Pennsylvania
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