Ratchet universality in the directed motion of spheres by unbiased driving forces in viscous fluids

Abstract

Directed motion of a sphere immersed in a viscous fluid and subjected solely to a nonlinear drag force and zero-average biharmonic forces is studied in the absence of any periodic substrate potential. We consider the case of two mutually perpendicular sinusoidal forces of periods T and T/2, respectively, which cannot yield any ratchet effect when acting separately, while inducing directed motion by acting simultaneously. Remarkably and unexpectedly, the dependence on the relative amplitude of the two sinusoidal forces of the average terminal velocity is theoretically explained from the theory of ratchet universality, while extensive numerical simulations confirmed its predictions in the adiabatic limit. Additionally, the dependence on the dimensionless driving frequency of the dimensionless average terminal velocity far from the adiabatic limit is qualitatively explained with the aid of the vibrational mechanics approach.