Dense brushes of stiff polymers or filaments in fluid flow

Dense filamentous brush-like structures are present in many biological interfacial systems (e.g., glycocalyx layer in blood vessels) to control their surface properties. Such structures can regulate the softness of a surface and modify fluid flow. In this letter, we propose a theoretical model which...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europhysics letters 2015-03, Vol.109 (6), p.68001-p1-68001-p6
Main Authors: Römer, F., Fedosov, D. A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
82.35.Gh
83.10.Bb
83.50.Ax
Blood vessels
Brushes
Computational fluid dynamics
Computer simulation
Deformation
Deformation effects
Filaments
Fluid flow
Fluids
Mathematical models
Polymers
Softness
Surface properties
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Summary:Dense filamentous brush-like structures are present in many biological interfacial systems (e.g., glycocalyx layer in blood vessels) to control their surface properties. Such structures can regulate the softness of a surface and modify fluid flow. In this letter, we propose a theoretical model which predicts quantitatively flow-induced deformation of a dense brush of stiff polymers or filaments, whose persistence length is larger or comparable to their contour length. The model is validated by detailed mesoscopic simulations and characterizes different contributions to brush deformation including hydrodynamic friction due to flow and steric excluded-volume interactions between grafted filaments. This theoretical model can be used to describe the effect of a stiff-polymer brush on fluid flow and to aid in the quantification of experiments.
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/0295-5075/109/68001