Related papers: Flow Transitions and Mapping for Undulating Swimme…
Flapping-based propulsive systems rely on fluid-structure interactions to produce thrust. At intermediate and high Reynolds numbers, vortex formation and organization in the wake of such systems are crucial for the generation of a…
Characterizing the dynamics of a cantilever in channel flow is relevant to applications ranging from snoring to energy harvesting. Aeroelastic flutter induces large oscillating amplitudes and sharp changes with frequency that impact the…
Due to its great efficiency and maneuverability, undulatory swimming is the predominant form of locomotion in aquatic vertebrates. A myriad of animals of different species and sizes oscillate their bodies to propel themselves in aquatic…
Sand is a highly dissipative system, where the local spatial arrangements and densities depend strongly on the applied forces, resulting in fluid-like or solid-like behaviour. This makes sand swimming challenging and intriguing, raising…
In this paper, we address a crucial point regarding the description of moderate to high Reynolds numbers aquatic swimmers. For decades, swimming animals have been classified in two different families of propulsive mechanisms based on the…
The propulsive dynamics of a flexible undulating foil in a self-propelled swimming configuration near a wall is studied experimentally. Measurements of the swimming speed and the propulsive force are presented, together with image…
We study experimentally a a three-dimensional reduced model of a sail shape performing pitching oscillations around a mean incidence angle ($\alpha_{m}$) with respect to an incoming flow in a hydrodynamic channel at a constant velocity…
Fish schools are capable of simultaneous linear acceleration. To reveal the underlying hydrodynamic mechanism, we numerically investigate how Reynolds number $ Re = 1000 - 2000 $, Strouhal number $ St = 0.2 - 0.7 $ and wavelength $ \lambda…
We present a two dimensional model of hydrodynamic interaction between a circular swimmer and a circular post at low Reynolds number, using a point singularity description of the swimming activity. We derive a nonlinear dynamical system…
Low Reynolds number swimmers frequently move near boundaries, such as spirochetes moving through porous tissues and sperm navigating the reproductive tract. Furthermore, these microorganisms must often navigate non-Newtonian fluids such as…
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…
In a fluid environment, flagellated microswimmers propel themselves by rotating their flagella. The morphology of these flagella significantly influences forward speed, swimming efficiency, and directional stability, which are critical for…
Both natural and artificial small-scale swimmers may often self-propel in environments subject to complex geometrical constraints. While most past theoretical work on low-Reynolds number locomotion addressed idealised geometrical…
Motile eukaryotic cells propel themselves in viscous fluids by passing waves of bending deformation down their flagella. An infinitely long flagellum achieves a hydrodynamically optimal low-Reynolds number locomotion when the angle between…
We apply a reinforcement learning algorithm to show how smart particles can learn approximately optimal strategies to navigate in complex flows. In this paper we consider microswimmers in a paradigmatic three-dimensional case given by a…
Inspired by the classical Kepler and Rutherford problem, we investigate an analogous set-up in the context of active microswimmers: the behavior of a deformable microswimmer in a swirl flow. First we identify new steady bound states in the…
Fish display remarkable swimming capabilities through the coordinated interaction of the body and caudal fin, yet the potential role of a passively pitching tail in enhancing hydrodynamic performance remains unresolved. In this work, we…
Sensing the flow of water or air disturbance is critical for the survival of many animals: flow information helps them localize food, mates, and prey and to escape predators. Across species, many flow sensors take the form of long, flexible…
We use the boundary element method to study the low-Reynolds number locomotion of a spherical model microorganism in a circular tube. The swimmer propels itself by tangen- tial or normal surface motion in a tube whose radius is on the order…
We computationally study the kinematics of a simple model reciprocal swimmer (asymmetric dumbbell) as a function of the Reynolds number (Re) and investigate how the onset and gradual increase of inertia impacts the swimming behavior: a…