The bearable gooeyness of swimming

Lauga, Eric

doi:10.1017/jfm.2014.607

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Phoretic effects, by which a field gradient sets colloidal particles into motion, thus appear as a relevant vessel for micro-propulsion. Swimmers propelled by non-interfacial phenomena such as bubbles [36,37,38,39,40], acoustic waves [41] or ultrasounds [42,43] or in complex fluids [44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51] are current topics of research but will not be discussed in this review. An overview of available swimmers is presented on [Fig.…”

Section: Swimming At the Microscalementioning

confidence: 99%

Eppur si muove, and yet it moves: Patchy (phoretic) swimmers

Aubret

Ramananarivo

Palacci

2017

Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Advances in colloidal synthesis allow for the design of particles with controlled patches. This article reviews routes towards colloidal locomotion, where energy is consumed and converted into motion, and its implementation with active patchy particles. A special emphasis is given to phoretic swimmers, where the self-propulsion originates from an interfacial phenomenon, raising experimental challenges and opening up opportunities for particles with controlled anisotropic surface chemistry and novel behaviors.

show abstract

Section: Swimming At the Microscalementioning

confidence: 99%

Eppur si muove, and yet it moves: Patchy (phoretic) swimmers

Aubret

Ramananarivo

Palacci

2017

Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Many biological fluids, including blood and respiratory and cervical mucus, display shearthinning rheology, where the viscosity decreases nonlinearly with the shear rate [6]. Recent efforts have begun to seek answers to fundamental questions on locomotion in shear-thinning fluids [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Swimming efficiency in a shear-thinning fluid

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Micro-organisms expend energy moving through complex media. While propulsion speed is an important property of locomotion, efficiency is another factor that may determine the swimming gait adopted by a micro-organism in order to locomote in an energetically favorable manner. The efficiency of swimming in a Newtonian fluid is well characterized for different biological and artificial swimmers. However, these swimmers often encounter biological fluids displaying shear-thinning viscosities. Little is known about how this nonlinear rheology influences the efficiency of locomotion. Does the shear-thinning rheology render swimming more efficient or less? How does the swimming efficiency depend on the propulsion mechanism of a swimmer and rheological properties of the surrounding shear-thinning fluid? In this work, we address these fundamental questions on the efficiency of locomotion in a shear-thinning fluid by considering the squirmer model as a general locomotion model to represent different types of swimmers. Our analysis reveals how the choice of surface velocity distribution on a squirmer may reduce or enhance the swimming efficiency. We determine optimal shear rates at which the swimming efficiency can be substantially enhanced compared with the Newtonian case. The nontrivial variations of swimming efficiency prompt questions on how micro-organisms may tune their swimming gaits to exploit the shear-thinning rheology. The findings also provide insights into how artificial swimmers should be designed to move through complex media efficiently.

show abstract

“…The question that emerges from recent literature is when (and why) does a swimmer go faster or slower in a shear-thinning fluid [15]. To address this question we study a canonical idealized model swimmer, the squirmer, in a shear-thinning fluid described by the Carreau-Yasuda model using a combination of asymptotic analysis and numerical simulations.We predict and show instances of both faster and slower swimming depending on the surface actuation of the squirmer.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Squirming through shear-thinning fluids

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many microorganisms find themselves immersed in fluids displaying non-Newtonian rheological properties such as viscoelasticity and shear-thinning viscosity. The effects of viscoelasticity on swimming at low Reynolds numbers have already received considerable attention, but much less is known about swimming in shear-thinning fluids. A general understanding of the fundamental question of how shear-thinning rheology influences swimming still remains elusive. To probe this question further, we study a spherical squirmer in a shear-thinning fluid using a combination of asymptotic analysis and numerical simulations. Shear-thinning rheology is found to affect a squirming swimmer in nontrivial and surprising ways; we predict and show instances of both faster and slower swimming depending on the surface actuation of the squirmer. We also illustrate that while a drag and thrust decomposition can provide insights into swimming in Newtonian fluids, extending this intuition to problems in complex media can prove problematic.

show abstract

The bearable gooeyness of swimming

Cited by 13 publications

References 19 publications

Eppur si muove, and yet it moves: Patchy (phoretic) swimmers

Eppur si muove, and yet it moves: Patchy (phoretic) swimmers

Swimming efficiency in a shear-thinning fluid

Squirming through shear-thinning fluids

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About