Dynamics of fibers in a wide microchannel

Dynamics of single flexible non-Brownian fibers, tumbling in a Poiseuille flow between two parallel solid plane walls, is studied with the use of the HYDROMULTIPOLE numerical code, based on the multipole expansion of the Stokes equations, corrected for lubrication. Fibers, which are closer to a wall, more flexible (less stiff) or longer, deform more significantly and, for a wide range of the system parameters, they faster migrate towards the middle plane of the channel. For the considered systems, fiber velocity along the flow is only slightly smaller than (and can be well approximated by) the Poseuille flow velocity at the same position. In this way, the history of a fiber migration across the channel is sufficient to determine with a high accuracy its displacement along the flow. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3678852]