Characterization of Hydrodynamic Surface Interactions of Escherichia coli Cell Bodies in Shear Flow

Condensed Matter journal club

Characterization of Hydrodynamic Surface Interactions of Escherichia coli Cell Bodies in Shear Flow

  • Event time: 11:30am
  • Event date: 2nd October 2009
  • Speaker: Laurence Wilson (Formerly School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
  • Location: Room 2511,

Event details

We experimentally demonstrate that nonflagellated Escherichia coli strains follow modified Jeffery orbits in shear flow near a surface. We fully characterize their Jeffery orbits as a function of their aspect ratios and distance from that surface. Thanks to the linearity of Navier-Stokes equations under low-Reynolds-number conditions, the hydrodynamic body-wall interactions described here can be superimposed with flagellar motility and Brownian motion to construct models that explain the full picture of bacterial motility near a surface under shear flow.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 138103 (2009)

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