Purcell swimmer near a wall
Fluid Dynamics
2026-03-19 v1
Abstract
We study the effects of hydrodynamic interactions between a wall and the Purcell three-link swimmer in the two-dimensional case. After deriving the equations of motion in a low Reynolds number regime using Resistive Force Theory with suitably modified drag coefficients, we show, by means of criteria from Geometric Control Theory, that the system is controllable at configurations that are nearly parallel to the wall. Furthermore, we study configurations that are tilted, and we show net displacement with respect to the initial orientation. Some numerical experiments illustrate the analytical results.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.16903,
title = {Purcell swimmer near a wall},
author = {Enrico Micalizio and Marco Morandotti and Henry Shum and Marta Zoppello},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.16903},
year = {2026}
}