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Helical ribbons: Simple chiral sedimentation

Elias Huseby1, Josephine Gissinger2, Fabien Candelier2, Nimish Pujara3, Gautier Verhille4, Bernhard Mehlig5, and Greg Voth1,*

  • *Contact author: gvoth@wesleyan.edu
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Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 024101 – Published 24 February, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.10.024101

Abstract

We study the design of chiral particle shapes that couple translation to rotation in viscous fluid flow. We identify helical ribbons as particles with strong coupling whose symmetry ensures that the centers of mass, buoyancy, resistance, and mobility coincide. Cocentered particles such as helical ribbons provide an essential step in the hierarchy of increasingly complex translation-rotation coupling. Experiments on sedimenting helical ribbons measure both relevant mobility tensors and show excellent agreement with simulations of ribbons made of interacting spheres. We observe quasiperiodic angular dynamics causing complex spatial trajectories. In tilt-spin phase space, orbits are closed due to time-reversal and reflection symmetry. As the helical ribbon length increases, a bifurcation occurs at which the stable sedimentation orientations switch. The particle at the bifurcation has axisymmetric translation-rotation coupling and particularly simple sedimentation dynamics. Some special trajectories are unconfined in space and may contribute disproportionately to particle transport rates.

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Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

See Also

Sedimentation Dynamics of Bodies with Two Planes of Symmetry

Harshit Joshi and Rama Govindarajan
Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 014002 (2025)

Article Text

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Information

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 024101– Published 24 February, 2025
  • Received 24 March 2024
  • Accepted 13 December 2024
Article part of CHORUS
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