A circle swimmer at low Reynolds number

Ledesma-Aguilar, Rodrigo, Löwen, Hartmut and Yeomans, Julia (2012) A circle swimmer at low Reynolds number. The European Physical Journal E, 35 (8). art. 70. ISSN 1292-8941

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Abstract

Swimming in circles occurs in a variety of situations at low Reynolds number. Here we propose a simple model for a swimmer that undergoes circular motion, generalising the model of a linear swimmer proposed by Najafi and Golestanian (Phys. Rev. E 69, 062901 (2004)). Our model consists of three solid spheres arranged in a triangular configuration, joined by two links of time-dependent length. For small strokes, we discuss the motion of the swimmer as a function of the separation angle between its links. We find that swimmers describe either clockwise or anticlockwise circular motion depending on the tilting angle in a non-trivial manner. The symmetry of the swimmer leads to a quadrupolar decay of the far flow field. We discuss the potential extensions and experimental realisation of our model.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Topical contribution
Subjects:	F300 Physics
Department:	Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering
Related URLs:	http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.3181
Depositing User:	Ellen Cole
Date Deposited:	16 Dec 2013 12:55
Last Modified:	12 Oct 2019 19:07
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/14826

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