Thin-Film Modelling of Resting and Moving Active Droplets

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive thin-film model for active polar liquids on solid substrates, capturing the dynamics of resting and moving droplets influenced by active and passive forces, with applications to biological suspensions.

Contribution

It presents a novel gradient dynamics model that couples film height and polarization, incorporating active stresses and wetting energy for realistic droplet behavior.

Findings

Model reproduces stationary and moving polarized droplets.

Active forces induce motion without a threshold.

Droplet shape and contact line dynamics are explained.

Abstract

We propose a generic model for thin films and shallow drops of a polar active liquid that have a free surface and are in contact with a solid substrate. The model couples evolution equations for the film height and the local polarization profile in the form of a gradient dynamics supplemented with active stresses and fluxes. A wetting energy for a partially wetting liquid is incorporated allowing for motion of the liquid-solid-gas contact line. This gives a consistent basis for the description of drops of dense bacterial suspensions or compact aggregates of living cells on solid substrates. As example, we analyze the dynamics of two-dimensional active drops (i.e., ridges) and demonstrate how active forces compete with passive surface forces to shape droplets and drive contact line motion. The model reproduces moving and resting states of polarized droplets: Drops containing domains of opposite polarization are stationary and evolve after long transients into drops with a uniform polarization moving actively over the substrate. In our simple two-dimensional scenario droplet motion sets in at infinitely small self-propulsion force, i.e., it does not need to overcome a critical threshold.