Elastic three-sphere microswimmer in a viscous fluid

Kento Yasuda, Yuto Hosaka, Mizuki Kuroda, Ryuichi Okamoto, Shigeyuki Komura

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

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 cyclic change in the natural length. In the low-frequency region, the swimming velocity increases with frequency, and its expression reduces to that of the original three-sphere model by Najafi and Golestanian. Conversely, in the high-frequency region, the average velocity decreases with increasing frequency. Such behavior originates from the intrinsic spring relaxation dynamics of an elastic swimmer moving in a viscous fluid.

Original languageEnglish
Article number093801
Journaljournal of the physical society of japan
Volume86
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 15 2017
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

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