title: Forced transport of deformable containers through narrow constrictions.
abstract: We study, numerically and analytically, the forced transport of deformable containers through a narrow constriction. Our central aim is to quantify the competition between the constriction geometry and the active forcing, regulating whether and at which speed a container may pass through the constriction and under what conditions it gets stuck. We focus, in particular, on the interrelation between the force that propels the container and the radius of the channel, as these are the external variables that may be directly controlled in both artificial and physiological settings. We present lattice Boltzmann simulations that elucidate in detail the various phases of translocation and present simplified analytical models that treat two limiting types of these membrane containers: deformational energy dominated by the bending or stretching contribution. In either case we find excellent agreement with the full simulations, and our results reveal that not only the radius but also the length of the constriction determines whether or not the container will pass.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5600MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Remy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kusters
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5600MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Thijs
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: van der Heijden
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5600MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands and Theoretical Physics I, University of Bayreuth, D-95447 Bayreuth, Germany.
authors.forename: Badr
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kaoui
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5600MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands and Faculty of Science and Technology, Mesa+ Institute, University of Twente, 7500AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Harting
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5600MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands and Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cornelis
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Storm
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004548:Elasticity; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009038:Motion