Miller, L. A. and Peskin, C. S.
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 3076-3090 (2009). (pdf file).
Clap and fling is used by almost all of the smallest flying insects. While clap and fling may augment lift, it drastically increases the drag force required to fling the wings apart at these Reynolds numbers. In this paper, we investigate the role of flexibility in reducing the drag force required for fling.

Miller, L. A. and Santhanakrishnan, S.
Accepted, Cell Biochem. Biophys. (pdf file).
The beating of the embryonic heart is necessary for its proper development, and recent work suggest that shear stress acting on the cardiac endothelial cells is critical for the correct formation of the chambers and valves. In this paper, we review recent work focused on the fluid dynamics of heart development.

Miller, L. A.
Accepted, Cell Biochem. Biophys. (pdf file).
As the early atrium contracts to fill the ventricle during heart development, large shear stresses are felt in the atrioventricular canal. Also, significant forces acting normal to the cardiac wall are felt in the atrium. In this paper, the immersed boundary method is used to study the fluid dynamics and resulting intracardial shear stresses and pressures during ventricular filling.

Santhanakrishnan, A., Nguyen, N., Gunderson, J. and Miller, L. A.
Journal of Theoretical Biology, Volume 259, Issue 3, 449-4 (2009). (.pdf file).
When the heart tube first forms, the Reynolds number describing intracardial flow is only about 0.02. During development, the Reynolds number increases to roughly 1000. The heart continues to beat and drive fluid during its entire development, despite significant changes in fluid dynamics. In this paper, the formation of chamber vortices across a range of Reynolds numbers is investigated using physical models and simulations.

Leiderman, K. M., Miller, L. A., and Fogelson, A. L..
J. Theor. Biol., 252(2): 313-25 (2008). (Science Direct Link).
Previously work on flow through the endothelial surface layer has assumed that the layer is of uniform height and density. Recent experimental results suggest that the structure of this layer is dynamic and nonuniform. In this paper, the effect of spatial inhomogeneities on flow through the ESL is investigated numerically using a Brinkman model of the vessel and layer.

Miller, L. A. and Peskin, C. S. .
J. Exp. Biol., 208: 195-212 (2005). (JEB Link).
In the smallest flying insects (5<Re< 50), the relative lift forces generated during flight decrease while the drag forces increase as the Reynolds number is lowered. The consequence of this is that flight becomes less efficient for very small insects. Many tiny insects use clap and fling to augment the lift forces generated. In this paper, we use the immersed boundary method to show that fling has a greater lift augmenting effect as the Reynolds number is reduced.

Miller, L. A.
J. Theor. Biol., 234: 511-524 (2005). (JTB Link)
Manmade structures can fail spectacularly when they are forced by wind or water at their resonant frequency. Plants, on the other hand, commonly experience periodic wind gusts and ocean waves at their resonant frequency. In this paper, we explore how the effect of nonlinearities might enable plants to minimize damage during resonance.

Miller, L. A. and Peskin, C. S.
J Exp Biol., 207: 3073-3088 (2004). (JEB link).
At the macroscale, animals typically swim and fly using flapping fins and wings. At the microscale, organisms swim using cilia and flagella. Mechanisms of locomotion in between these two limits are not well understood. in this paper, we explore the lower Reynolds number limit of flight using computational fluids dynamics. We find that drag forces increase significantly relative to lift forces as the Reynolds number approaches the lower limit where animals are observed to fly in nature.

Santhanakrishnan, A., Cox, J. G., Leiderman, K. M., and Miller, L. A.
Submitted, Microvascular Research. (pdf file).
Flow through the endothelial surface layer (ESL) is significant to cell signaling through a process known as mechanotransduction. In this paper, spatially resolved flow fields through dynamically scaled physical models of the endothelial surface layer were obtained using piv and compared to velocity fields predicted by a simple 1D Brinkman model.

Luoding Zhu, Guowei He, Shizhao Wang, Laura Miller, Xing Zhang, Qian You, Shiaofen Fang.
Submitted, Computers and Mathematics with Applications.
The Navier-Stokes equations in the IB method are usually solved by numerical methods such as FFT and projection method. Here in our work the N-S equations are solved by an alternative approach, the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM).

Arvind Santhanakrishnan, Christina Hamlet, Luoding Zhu, and Laura Miller
Submitted, Journal of Fluid Mechanics (.pdf).
We used particle image velocimetry to quantify the flow fields behind the leaves of the wild ginger. The results were compared to physical models of cones and sheets.