Related papers: Fluid Elasticity Can Enable Propulsion at Low Reyn…
We observe the emergence of a distinct, elasticity-driven flow state in a yield-stress fluid in the absence of inertia. Numerical simulations show that this elasto-plastic turbulent state is characterized by a broad spectrum of fluctuations…
The interaction of flexible polymers with fluid flows leads to a number of intriguing phenomena observed in laboratory experiments, namely drag reduction, elastic turbulence and heat transport modification in natural convection, and is one…
In this paper, we give formulas for the swimming of simplified two-dimensional bodies in complex fluids using the reciprocal theorem. By way of these formulas we calculate the swimming velocity due to small-amplitude deformations on the…
Many small organisms self-propel in viscous fluids using travelling wave-like deformation of their bodies or appendages. Examples include small nematodes moving through soil using whole-body undulations or spermatozoa swimming through mucus…
Motility is a fundamental feature of living matter, encompassing single cells and collective behavior. Such living systems are characterized by non-conservativity of energy and a large diversity of spatio-temporal patterns. Thus,…
Lift forces are widespread in hydrodynamics. These are typically observed for big and fast objects, and are often associated with a combination of fluid inertia (i.e. large Reynolds numbers) and specific symmetry-breaking mechanisms. In…
The deformation of thin rods in a viscous liquid is central to the mechanics of motility in cells ranging from \textit{Escherichia coli} to sperm. Here we use experiments and theory to study the shape transition of a flexible rod rotating…
Microorganisms are rarely found in Nature swimming freely in an unbounded fluid. Instead, they typically encounter other organisms, hard walls, or deformable boundaries such as free interfaces or membranes. Hydrodynamic interactions between…
The motion of flexible fibers through structured fluidic environments is ubiquitous in nature and industrial applications. Most often, their dynamics results from the complex interplay between internal elastic stresses, contact forces and…
From bacteria and sperm cells to artificial microrobots, self-propelled microscopic objects at low Reynolds numbers often perceive fluctuating mechanical and chemical stimuli and contact exterior wall boundaries both in nature and the…
When a particle moves in a Newtonian flow at low Reynolds number, inertia is irrelevant and a linear relationship exists between velocities and forces. For incompressible flows, any force distribution $\mathbf{f}(\mathbf{r})$ acting in the…
Using numerical simulations, we characterized the behavior of an elastic membrane immersed in an active fluid. Our findings reveal a nontrivial folding and re-expansion of the membrane that is controlled by the interplay of its resistance…
Edges are abundant when elastic solids glide in guiding rails or fluids are contained in vessels. We here address induced displacements in elastic solids or small-scale flows in viscous fluids in the vicinity of one such edge. For this…
Translational and rotational swimming at small Reynolds number of a planar assembly of identical spheres immersed in an incompressible viscous fluid is studied on the basis of a set of equations of motion for the individual spheres. The…
Solutions of long, flexible polymer molecules are complex fluids that simultaneously exhibit fluid-like and solid-like behaviour. When subjected to an external flow, dilute polymer solutions exhibit elastic turbulence - a unique, chaotic…
The swimming of an elliptical disk at small Reynolds number is studied on the basis of a perturbative solution of the Navier-Stokes equations for fluid flow near a deformable infinite sheet. A stroke involving an elliptically polarized…
Swimming and pumping at low Reynolds numbers are subject to the "Scallop theorem", which states that there will be no net fluid flow for time reversible motions. Living organisms such as bacteria and cells are subject to this constraint,…
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…
Self-propelled particles can exhibit surprising non-equilibrium behaviors, and how they interact with obstacles or boundaries remains an important open problem. Here we show that chemically propelled micro-rods can be captured, with little…
Based on everyday experience fluid flows tend to be ordered and quiescent if inertial forces are low and held in check by viscosity. This intuition spectacularly fails in the case of complex macromolecular fluids like polymer melts, paints…