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Periodic and quasiperiodic motion of an elongated microswimmer in Poiseuille flow

The European Physical Journal E volume 36, Article number: 4 (2013) Cite this article

Abstract.

We study the dynamics of a prolate spheroidal microswimmer in Poiseuille flow for different flow geometries. When moving between two parallel plates or in a cylindrical microchannel, the swimmer performs either periodic swinging or periodic tumbling motion. Although the trajectories of spherical and elongated swimmers are qualitatively similar, the swinging and tumbling frequency strongly depends on the aspect ratio of the swimmer. In channels with reduced symmetry the swimmers perform quasiperiodic motion which we demonstrate explicitly for swimming in a channel with elliptical cross-section.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstrasse 36, 10623, Berlin, Germany

    Andreas Zöttl & Holger Stark

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  1. Andreas Zöttl
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  2. Holger Stark
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Correspondence to Andreas Zöttl.

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Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Zöttl, A., Stark, H. Periodic and quasiperiodic motion of an elongated microswimmer in Poiseuille flow. Eur. Phys. J. E 36, 4 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2013-13004-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2013-13004-5

Keywords

  • Topical issue: Active Matter