Abstract
The swimming of an assembly of rigid spheres immersed in a viscous fluid of infinite extent is studied in low-Reynolds-number hydrodynamics. The instantaneous swimming velocity and rate of dissipation are expressed in terms of the time-dependent displacements of sphere centers about their collective motion. For small-amplitude swimming with periodically oscillating displacements, optimization of the mean swimming speed at given mean power leads to an eigenvalue problem involving a velocity matrix and a power matrix. The corresponding optimal stroke permits generalization to large-amplitude motion in a model of spheres with harmonic interactions and corresponding actuating forces. The method allows straightforward calculation of the swimming performance of structures modeled as assemblies of interacting rigid spheres. A model of three collinear spheres with motion along the common axis is studied as an example.
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Felderhof, B.U. Efficient swimming of an assembly of rigid spheres at low Reynolds number. Eur. Phys. J. E 38, 90 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2015-15090-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2015-15090-7