Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering | University of California San Diego
Microscale Flow Modeling
Saintillan Research Group
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Welcome to the Saintillan Research Group!

Our research centers on the study of fundamental fluid mechanics problems involving complex fluids and complex flows, typically on small scales. We use a combination of modeling, theory, and numerical simulations to study the dynamics and properties of flows involving a microstructure (such as particles, macromolecules, swimming micro-organisms, biopolymers) suspended in and interacting with a viscous fluid, as arise in many biophysical, environmental, and technological processes. We are particularly interested in fluid flow problems in which complexity arises from: multiphysics phenomena in which the interactions of various effects (mechanical, electric, chemical, or thermal) lead to complex dynamics; the effects of long-ranged hydrodynamic interactions on fluctuations and pattern formation; the coupling of a large number of degrees of freedom (such as particle configurations). Many of our current problems of interest are motivated by simple experiments, biological phenomena, or engineering applications, and their solution often involves applied mathematics, large-scale computation, and comparisons to experimental data. More details on our recent work can be found in our publications.


Group Photo Current members of the Saintillan Research Group (December 2024): David Saintillan, Tanumoy Dhar, Dalia Barragan, Nick Broussinos, Cuncheng Zhu, Yuchen Hou, Yuzhu Chen.

Recent News

April 2026: The paper "Hydrodynamic theory of euchromatin and heterochromatin" by Rautu, Zidovska, Saintillan and Shelley appeared in Physical Review X. Click here to download the article.

March 2026: The paper "The hydrodynamic torque dipole from rotary bacterial flagella powers symmetric discs" by Grober, Dhar, Saintillan and Palacci appeared in Nature Physics. Click here to download the article.

November 2024: The Saintillan Research Group attended the 78th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics in Houston, TX.

August 2025: The paper "Stability of co-annular active and passive confined fluids" by Dhar, Shelley and Saintillan appeared in Physical Review Fluids, where it is featured as an Editor's Selection. Click here to download the article.

Gallery of Images

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