In the delivery of DNA molecules by microfluidic devices, the channel width is very often in the same order as the size of the DNA molecules and the applicability of continuum mechanics at this level may be questioned. In this paper we use finitely extendable nonlinear elastic (FENE) chains to model the DNA molecules and employ the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) method to simulate their behavior in the flow. Simple DPD fluids are found to behave just like a Newtonian fluid in Poiseuille flow. However, the velocity profiles of FENE chain suspensions can be fitted with power-law curves, especially for dilute suspensions. Some results on the conformation and migration of FENE chains are also reported.

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SUMMARYIn this paper, the mesh-free least square-based finite difference (MLSFD) method is applied to numerically study the flow field around two circular cylinders arranged in side-by-side and tandem configurations. For each configuration, various geometrical arrangements are considered, in order to reveal the different flow regimes characterized by the gap between the two cylinders. In this work, the flow simulations are carried out in the low Reynolds number range, that is, Re = 100 and 200. Instantaneous vorticity contours and streamlines around the two cylinders are used as the visualization aids. Some flow parameters such as Strouhal number, drag and lift coefficients calculated from the solution are provided and quantitatively compared with those provided by other researchers.