Jiyuan Li

Dynamic behaviors of many biological, colloidal, and other soft matter systems are often driven by both electrostatic and hydrodynamic interactions(HIs). Challenges: 1) Polarization effects can significantly affect the electrostatic interactions in those systems where dielectric contrast between solute and solvent exists. However, for the complexities associated with the many-body nature of polarization, these effects are frequently ignored in computational modeling; 2) HIs are long-ranged thus making it even harder to solve the governing equations when studying the dynamic behavior of finite-size particles in confined flow. To address these challenges, the group employs a set of numerical methods to resolve both polarization effects and HIs, and develop powerful integrated simulation package that enables a better understanding of dynamic behaviors of particles, for example, cells, DNAs, in flow.