Related papers: Extensibility enables locomotion under isotropic d…
Self-propulsion at low Reynolds number is notoriously restricted, a concept that is commonly known as the "scallop theorem". Here we present a truly self-propelled swimmer (force- and torque- free) that, while unable to swim in a Newtonian…
Flagellated microorganisms can swim at low Reynolds numbers and adapt to changes in their environment. Specifically, the flagella can switch their shapes or modes through gene expression. In the past decade, efforts have been made to…
It is numerically investigated whether a deformable object can propel itself in a superfluid. Articulated bodies and multi-component condensates are examined as swimmers. An articulated two-body swimmer cannot obtain locomotion without…
Incompressibility is established for three-dimensional and two-dimensional deformations of an anisotropic linearly elastic material, as conditions to be satisfied by the elastic compliances. These conditions make it straightforward to…
We theoretically study the self-propulsion of a thin (slender) colloid driven by asymmetric chemical reactions on its surface at vanishing Reynolds number. Using the method of matched asymptotic expansions, we obtain the colloid…
The possibility of microscopic swimming by extraction of energy from an external flow is discussed, focusing on the migration of a simple trimer across a linear shear flow. The geometric properties of swimming, together with the possible…
The effect of the variations of the permeability tensor on the close-to-the-wall behaviour of a turbulent channel flow bounded by porous walls is explored using a set of direct numerical simulations. It is found that the total drag can be…
We present a novel method to investigate the dynamics of a single semiflexible polymer, subject to anisotropic friction in a viscous fluid. In contrast to previous approaches, we do not rely on a discrete bead-rod model, but introduce a…
Many biological fluids are composed of suspended polymers immersed in a viscous fluid. A prime example is mucus, where the polymers are also known to form a network. While the presence of this microstructure is linked with an overall…
Microorganisms thrive in complex environments and their behavior in fluids holds significant importance for various medical and industrial applications. By conducting Lattice Boltzmann simulations, the transport and rotational properties of…
We theoretically investigate self-oscillating waves of an active material, which have recently been introduced as a non-symmetric part of the elastic moduli, termed odd elasticity. Using Purcell's three-link swimmer model, we reveal that an…
Inspired by recent experiments using synthetic microswimmers to manipulate droplets, we investigate the low-Reynolds-number locomotion of a model swimmer (a spherical squirmer) encapsulated inside a droplet of comparable size in another…
Suspensions of self-motile, elongated particles are a topic of significant current interest, exemplifying a form of `active matter'. Examples include self-propelling bacteria, algae and sperm, and artificial swimmers. Ericksen's model of a…
This paper is devoted to the existence of a weak solution to a system describing a self-propelled motion of a rigid body in a viscous fluid in the whole $\mathbb{R}^3$. The fluid is modelled by the incompressible nonhomogeneous…
We present in this fluid dynamics video a novel experimental setup with self-propelled swimmers on a free surface. The swimmers, modeled as flexible thin filaments, are subjected to external electromagnetic forcing driving a propagating…
Autonomous locomotion is a ubiquitous phenomenon in biology and in physics of active systems at microscopic scale. This includes prokaryotic, eukaryotic cells (crawling and swimming) and artificial swimmers. An outstanding feature is the…
Drag reduction by polymers in turbulent flows raises an apparent contradiction: the stretching of the polymers must increase the viscosity, so why is the drag reduced? A recent theory proposed that drag reduction in agreement with…
Many biological fluids have polymeric microstructures and display non-Newtonian rheology. We take advantage of such nonlinear fluid behavior and combine it with geometrical symmetry-breaking to design a novel small-scale propeller able to…
Many microswimmers are able to swim through viscous fluids by employing periodic non-reciprocal deformations of their appendages. Here we use a simple microswimmer model inspired by swimming biflagellates which consists of a spherical cell…
The survival of many microorganisms, like \textit{Leptospira} or \textit{Spiroplasma} bacteria, can depend on their ability to navigate towards regions of favorable viscosity. While this ability, called viscotaxis, has been observed in…