Does Tesla valve work for microscale active swimmers? – a computational study

Abstract

Although the Tesla valve is well-known for its diodicity for fluid flows and pressure drops, it is not clear whether and how the resistances experienced by active swimmers in the forward and reverse directions are different. Here we carried out a computational study on the diodicity of the Tesla valve for active swimmers in the absence of fluid flows. We simulated the active Brownian motion of the swimmers in a Tesla valve, followed by examining their trajectories and quantifying the fraction of active swimmers reaching the left or right end of the Tesla valve (in the forward or reverse direction, respectively). We also estimated the first passage time of the swimmers reaching the valve ends. We confirmed that, in the absence of fluid flows, the Tesla valve shows much higher resistance to active swimmers in the reverse direction than the forward direction. The current study provides a better understanding of the interaction of the Tesla valve with active swimmers and gives insight into potential applications of the Tesla valve in the filtering and sorting of motile microbes.