Gyrotactic swimmer dispersion in pipe flow: experimental challenge of competing models

Suspensions of microswimmers are a rich source of fascinating new fluid mechanics. Recently we predicted the nonclassical pipe flow dispersion of gyrotactic microalgae, whose orientation is biased by gravity and flow shear. Analytical theory predicts that these active swimmers disperse in a markedly distinct manner from passive tracers (Taylor dispersion). Dispersing swimmers display nonzero drift and effective diffusivity that is non-monotonic with Péclet number. Such predictions agree with numerical simulations, but hitherto have not been tested experimentally. Here, we extend the theory to realistically describe suspensions of negatively buoyant bi-flagellate algae and obtain new predictions for the model species Dunaliella salina, parametrised using tracking video microscopy. We then present a new experimental method to measure gyrotactic dispersion using fluorescently stained D. salina and provide a preliminary comparison with predictions of a nonzero drift above the mean flow. Finally, we propose further experiments for a full experimental characterisation of gyrotactic dispersion measures and discuss implications of our results for algal dispersion in industrial photobioreactors.