The coordinated beating of epithelial cilia in human lungs is a fascinating problem from the hydrodynamics perspective. The phase lag between neighboring cilia is able to generate collective cilia motions, known as metachronal waves. Different kinds of waves can occur, antiplectic or symplectic, depending on the direction of the wave with respect to the flow direction. It is shown here, using a coupled lattice Boltzmann-immersed boundary solver, that the key mechanism responsible for their transport efficiency is a blowing-suction effect that displaces the interface between the periciliary liquid and the mucus phase. The contribution of this mechanism on the average flow generated by the cilia is compared to the contribution of the lubrication effect. The results reveal that the interface displacement is the main mechanism responsible for the better efficiency of antiplectic metachronal waves over symplectic ones to transport bronchial mucus. The conclusions drawn here can be extended to any two-layer fluid configuration having different viscosities, and put into motion by cilia-shaped or comb-plate structures, having a back-and-forth motion with phase lags.
Sylvain Chateau, Julien Favier, Sébastien Poncet, Umberto d'Ortona. Why antiplectic metachronal cilia waves are optimal to transport bronchial mucus. Physical Review E , 2019, 100 (4), pp.042405. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevE.100.042405⟩. ⟨hal-02468006⟩
Sylvain Chateau, Umberto d'Ortona, Sébastien Poncet, Julien Favier. Transport and Mixing Induced by Beating Cilia in Human Airways. Frontiers in Physiology, 2018, 9, pp.161. ⟨10.3389/fphys.2018.00161⟩. ⟨hal-01875672⟩ Plus de détails...
The fluid transport and mixing induced by beating cilia, present in the bronchial airways, are studied using a coupled lattice Boltzmann-Immersed Boundary solver. This solver allows the simulation of both single and multi-component fluid flows around moving solid boundaries. The cilia aremodeled by a set of Lagrangian points, and Immersed Boundary forces are computed onto these points in order to ensure the no-slip velocity conditions between the cilia and the fluids. The cilia are immersed in a two-layer environment: the periciliary layer (PCL) and the mucus above it. The motion of the cilia is prescribed, as well as the phase lag between two cilia in order to obtain a typical collective motion of cilia, known as metachronal waves. The results obtained from a parametric study show that antiplectic metachronal waves are the most efficient regarding the fluid transport. A specific value of phase lag, which generates the larger mucus transport, is identified. The mixing is studied using several populations of tracers initially seeded into the pericilary liquid, in the mucus just above the PCL-mucus interface, and in the mucus far away from the interface. We observe that each zone exhibits different chaotic mixing properties. The larger mixing is obtained in the PCL layer where only a few beating cycles of the cilia are required to obtain a full mixing, while above the interface, the mixing is weaker and takes more time. Almost no mixing is observed within the mucus, and almost all the tracers do not penetrate the PCL layer. Lyapunov exponents are also computed for specific locations to assess how the mixing is performed locally. Two time scales are introduced to allow a comparison between mixing induced by fluid advection and by molecular diffusion. These results are relevant in the context of respiratory flows to investigate the transport of drugs for patients suffering from chronic respiratory diseases.
Sylvain Chateau, Umberto d'Ortona, Sébastien Poncet, Julien Favier. Transport and Mixing Induced by Beating Cilia in Human Airways. Frontiers in Physiology, 2018, 9, pp.161. ⟨10.3389/fphys.2018.00161⟩. ⟨hal-01875672⟩
Sylvain Chateau, Julien Favier, Umberto D’ortona, Sebastien Poncet. Transport efficiency of metachronal waves in 3D cilium arrays immersed in a two-phase flow. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2017, 824, pp.931 - 961. ⟨10.1017/jfm.2017.352⟩. ⟨hal-01592834⟩ Plus de détails...
This work reports the formation and characterization of antipleptic and symplectic metachronal waves in 3D cilium arrays immersed in a two-fluid environment, with a viscosity ratio of 20. A coupled lattice Boltzmann-immersed-boundary solver is used. The periciliary layer is confined between the epithelial surface and the mucus. Its thickness is chosen such that the tips of the cilia can penetrate the mucus. A purely hydrodynamical feedback of the fluid is taken into account and a coupling parameter alpha is introduced, which allows tuning of both the direction of the wave propagation and the strength of the fluid feedback. A comparative study of both antipleptic and symplectic waves, mapping a cilium interspacing ranging from 1.67 up to 5 cilium lengths, is performed by imposing metachrony. Antipleptic waves are found to systematically outperform symplectic waves. They are shown to be more efficient for transporting and mixing the fluids, while spending less energy than symplectic, random or synchronized motions.
Sylvain Chateau, Julien Favier, Umberto D’ortona, Sebastien Poncet. Transport efficiency of metachronal waves in 3D cilium arrays immersed in a two-phase flow. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2017, 824, pp.931 - 961. ⟨10.1017/jfm.2017.352⟩. ⟨hal-01592834⟩
