Hydrodynamics of Interacting Rods

Abstract

This note considers how hydrodynamic interactions between a pair of rods slow the motion of each rod. Rods are approximated as being nearly straight lines of pointlike beads. Hydrodynamic interactions between the beads are treated with generalizations, developed by Kynch (J. Fluid Mech. 5, 193-208 (1959)) and by Mazur and van Saarloos (Physica A 115, 21-57 (1982)) of the Oseen and Rotne-Prager hydrodynamic interaction tensors. We find that the hydrodynamic interactions between two rods, as they affect the mobility of a given rod, are with a minor exception not very different from the interactions between two beads, especially when the two rods are even modestly separated. At the level of approximation of bead-spring models of polymer coils, it therefore does not appear to be advantageous to replace sphere-sphere hydrodynamic interaction tensors with more elaborate rod-rod hydrodynamic interaction tensors.