Related papers: Fluid Elasticity Can Enable Propulsion at Low Reyn…
We perform analytical and numerical analyses of the propulsion of a rigid body in a viscous fluid subjected to a periodic force with zero average over a period. This general formulation specifically addresses the significant case, where…
When an elastic object is dragged through a viscous fluid tangent to a rigid boundary, it experiences a lift force perpendicular to its direction of motion. An analogous lift mechanism occurs when a rigid symmetric object translates…
It is known that an object translating parallel to a soft wall in a viscous fluid produces hydro- dynamic stresses that deform the wall, which, in turn, results in a lift force on the object. Recent experiments with cylinders sliding under…
In isotropic fluids like water, micrometer-scale swimmers have evolved swim strokes to translate despite their tiny size. As described by Purcell in his Scallop Theorem, reciprocal motions, like those performed by a scallop, cannot drive…
A simple way to generate propulsion at low Reynolds number is to periodically oscillate a passive flexible filament. Here we present a macroscopic experimental investigation of such a propulsive mechanism. A robotic swimmer is constructed…
The Lorentz reciprocal theorem -- that is used to study various transport phenomena in hydrodynamics -- is violated in chiral active fluids that feature odd viscosity with broken time-reversal and parity symmetries. Here we show that the…
We combine experiments with simulations to investigate the fluid-structure interaction of a flexible helical rod rotating in a viscous fluid, under low Reynolds number conditions. Our analysis takes into account the coupling between the…
Viscoelastic fluids are a common subclass of rheologically complex materials that are encountered in diverse fields from biology to polymer processing. Often the flows of viscoelastic fluids are unstable in situations where ordinary…
Many microorganisms swim through gels and non-Newtonian fluids in their natural environments. In this paper, we focus on microorganisms which use flagella for propulsion. We address how swimming velocities are affected in nonlinearly…
Swimming microorganisms often self propel in fluids with complex rheology. While past theoretical work indicates that fluid viscoelasticity should hinder their locomotion, recent experiments on waving swimmers suggest a possible…
The effects of fluid elasticity on the swimming behavior of the nematode \emph{Caenorhabditis elegans} are experimentally investigated by tracking the nematode's motion and measuring the corresponding velocity fields. We find that fluid…
The flow of viscoelastic fluids in channels and pipes remain poorly understood, particularly at low Reynolds numbers. Here, we investigate the flow of polymeric solutions in straight channels using pressure measurements and particle…
The frictional forces of a viscous liquid flow are a major energy loss issue and severely limit microfluidics practical use. Reducing this drag by more than a few tens of percent remain illusive. Here, we show how cylindrical…
The current work studies the dynamics of a microswimmer in pressure-driven flow of a weakly viscoelastic fluid. Employing the second-order fluid model, we show that the self-propelling swimmer experiences a viscoelastic swimming lift in…
Flexible filaments moving in viscous fluids are ubiquitous in the natural microscopic world. For example, the swimming of bacteria and spermatozoa as well as important physiological functions at organ-level, such as the cilia-induced motion…
Swimming microorganisms often have to propel in complex, non-Newtonian fluids. We carry out experiments with self-propelling helical swimmers driven by an externally rotating magnetic field in shear-thinning, inelastic fluids. Similarly to…
To describe many-particle systems suspended in incompressible low-Reynolds-number fluids, effective hydrodynamic interactions can be introduced. Here, we consider particles embedded in elastic media. The effective elastic interactions…
A fundamental assumption in our understanding of material rheology is that when microscopic deformations are reversible, the material responds elastically to external loads. Plasticity, i.e. dissipative and irreversible macroscopic changes…
Flagella beating in complex fluids are significantly influenced by viscoelastic stresses. Relevant examples include the ciliary transport of respiratory airway mucus and the motion of spermatozoa in the mucus-filled female reproductive…
We showed that various expressions of stress in different models of fluids and in different forms of applying Newton's Second Law can be chosen, however there is always one Newton's Second Law which restricts and provides flexibility in…