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arXiv · 1707.03580

Elastic three-sphere microswimmer in a viscous fluid

Kento Yasuda·Yuto Hosaka·Mizuki Kuroda·Ryuichi Okamoto·Shigeyuki Komura
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Abstract

We discuss the dynamics of a generalized three-sphere microswimmer in which the spheres are connected by two elastic springs. The natural length of each spring is assumed to undergo a prescribed cyclic change. We analytically obtain the average swimming velocity as a function of the frequency of the cyclic change in the natural length. In the low-frequency region, the swimming velocity increases with the frequency and its expression reduces to that of the original three-sphere model by Najafi and Golestanian. In the high-frequency region, conversely, the average velocity decreases with increasing the frequency. Such a behavior originates from the intrinsic spring relaxation dynamics of an elastic swimmer moving in a viscous fluid.

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Kento Yasuda, Yuto Hosaka, Mizuki Kuroda, Ryuichi Okamoto, Shigeyuki Komura. 2017-07-12. Elastic three-sphere microswimmer in a viscous fluid. https://doi.org/10.7566/jpsj.86.093801

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