Related papers: Generalized Scallop Theorem for Linear Swimmers

The locomotion of microorganisms in fluids is ubiquitous and plays an important role in numerous biological processes. In this chapter we present an overview of theoretical modeling for low-Reynolds-number locomotion.

In this paper we study the motion of three linked ellipses moving through a viscous fluid in two dimensions. The angles between the ellipses change with time in a specified manner (the gait) and the resulting time varying configuration is…

Micro-swimmer locomotion in heterogeneous media is increasingly relevant in biological physics due to the prevalence of microorganisms in complex environments. A model for such porous media is the Brinkman fluid which accounts for a sparse…

In this paper we focus on a two-link swimmer called scallop which moves changing dynamics between two fluids regimes. We address and solve explicitly two optimal control problems, the minimum time one and the minimum quadratic cost needed…

An axisymmetric squirmer in a Bingham viscoplastic fluid is studied numerically to determine the effect of a yield stress environment on locomotion. The nonlinearity of the governing equations necessitates numerical methods, which is…

In this article we present the discrete-time isoholonomic problem of the planar Purcell's swimmer and solve it using the Discrete-time Pontryagin maximum principle. The 3-link Purcell's swimmer is a locomotion system moving in a low…

Following the idea that dissipation in turbulence at high Reynolds number is by events singular in space-time and described by solutions of the inviscid Euler equations, we draw the conclusion that in such flows scaling laws should depend…

'A basic and basically unsolved problem in fluid dynamics is to determine the evolution of rising bubbles and falling drops of one miscible liquid in another' [1]. Here, we address this important literature gap and present the first theory…

The role of passive body dynamics on the kinematics of swimming micro-organisms in complex fluids is investigated. Asymptotic analysis of small amplitude motions of a finite-length undulatory swimmer in a Stokes-Oldroyd-B fluid is used to…

Undulatory locomotion is a means of self-propulsion that relies on the generation and propagation of waves along a body. As a mode of locomotion it is primitive and relatively simple, yet can be remarkably robust. No wonder then, that it is…

Depending on multiple parameters, soft robots can exhibit different modes of locomotion that are difficult to model numerically. As a result, improving their performance is complex, especially in small-scale systems characterized by low…

A simple model for the motion of shape-changing swimmers in Poiseuille flow was recently proposed and numerically explored by Omori et al. (2022). These explorations hinted that a small number of interacting mechanics can drive long-time…

Many forms of locomotion, both natural and artificial, are dominated by viscous friction in the sense that without power expenditure they quickly come to a standstill. From geometric mechanics, it is known that for swimming at the…

We present a theory for pitch, a matrix property which is linked to the coupling of rotational and translational motion of rigid bodies at low Reynolds number. The pitch matrix is a geometric property of objects in contact with a…

Anisotropic viscous drag is usually believed to be a requirement for the low Reynolds number locomotion of slender bodies such as flagella and cilia. Here we show that locomotion under isotropic drag is possible for extensible slender…

Swimming of microorganisms is studied from a viewpoint of extended objects (strings and membranes) swimming in the incompressible f luid of low Reynolds number. The flagellated motion is analyzed in two dimensional fluid, by using the…

Undulatory locomotion is ubiquitous in nature and observed in different media, from the swimming of flagellated microorganisms in biological fluids, to the slithering of snakes on land, or the locomotion of sandfish lizards in sand. Despite…

We propose a reciprocal, self-propelled model swimmer at intermediate Reynolds numbers ($Re$). Our swimmer consists of two unequal spheres that oscillate in antiphase generating nonlinear steady streaming (SS) flows. We show computationally…

We propose a very simple one-dimensional swimmer consisting of three spheres that are linked by rigid rods whose lengths can change between two values. With a periodic motion in a non-reciprocal fashion, which breaks the time-reversal…

In the limit of zero Reynolds number (Re), swimmers propel themselves exploiting a series of non-reciprocal body motions. For an artificial swimmer, a proper selection of the power source is required to drive its motion, in cooperation with…