Soft swimming: Exploiting deformable interfaces for low-Reynolds number locomotion

Details Soft swimming: Exploiting deformable interfaces for low-Reynolds number locomotion Soft swimming: Exploiting deformable interfaces for low-Reynolds number locomotion

2008-06-27

arxiv.org/abs/0806.4457v1

Phys. Rev. Lett. (2008) 101, 048102

Physics

Condensed Matter

Soft Condensed Matter

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.048102

Reciprocal movement cannot be used for locomotion at low-Reynolds number in an infinite fluid or near a rigid surface. Here we show that this limitation is relaxed for a body performing reciprocal motions near a deformable interface. Using physical arguments and scaling relationships, we show that the nonlinearities arising from reciprocal flow-induced interfacial deformation rectify the periodic motion of the swimmer, leading to locomotion. Such a strategy can be used to move toward, away from, and parallel to any deformable interface as long as the length scales involved are smaller than intrinsic scales, which we identify. A macro-scale experiment of flapping motion near a free surface illustrates this new result.

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