Designing active cilial sensors

We employ a hybrid lattice Boltzmann / lattice spring computational model to simulate the three-dimensional hydrodynamic interactions among actuated and sensory elastic cilia tethered to a wall of a microfluidic channel. These actuated and sensory cilia are arranged a chessboard pattern on the channel wall. The actuated cilia are driven by a sinusoidal force applied to their free ends and induce periodic oscillations of a viscous fluid filling the microchannel. The passive, sensory cilia are used to measure the force arising due to fluid oscillations. We show that the combination of sensory and actuated cilia allows us to evaluate distances to solid objects located in a fluid-filled microchannel, thereby yielding a useful active sensor for microfluidic and biomedical applications.