Rectified flow-mediated transport in bio-hybrid settings

Motivated by drug-delivery applications and recent advances in bio-hybrid engineering, we present a torus-shaped, bio-compatible muscle ring operating in Stokes-like flows. Muscle ring contractions set up a rectified viscous streaming flow, which we confirm via direct numerical simulations. Leveraging this streaming response, we explore in-silico the capability of this system to perform contactless payload delivery and particle manipulations, demonstrating its robustness across a range of conditions. Comparison against results without muscle actuation further confirms that viscous streaming is indeed the dominant mechanism at play.