TY - JOUR
T1 - Viscoelastic fluid response can increase the speed and efficiency of a free swimmer
AU - Teran, Joseph
AU - Fauci, Lisa
AU - Shelley, Michael
PY - 2010/1/19
Y1 - 2010/1/19
N2 - Microorganisms navigate through complex environments such as biofilms and mucosal tissues and tracts. To understand the effect of a complex medium upon their locomotion, we investigate numerically the effect of fluid viscoelasticity on the dynamics of an undulating swimming sheet. First, we recover recent small-amplitude results for infinite sheets that suggest that viscoelasticity impedes locomotion. We find the opposite result when simulating free swimmers with large tail undulations, with both velocity and mechanical efficiency peaking for Deborah numbers near one. We associate this with regions of highly stressed fluid aft of the undulating tail.
AB - Microorganisms navigate through complex environments such as biofilms and mucosal tissues and tracts. To understand the effect of a complex medium upon their locomotion, we investigate numerically the effect of fluid viscoelasticity on the dynamics of an undulating swimming sheet. First, we recover recent small-amplitude results for infinite sheets that suggest that viscoelasticity impedes locomotion. We find the opposite result when simulating free swimmers with large tail undulations, with both velocity and mechanical efficiency peaking for Deborah numbers near one. We associate this with regions of highly stressed fluid aft of the undulating tail.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.038101
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.038101
M3 - Article
C2 - 20366685
AN - SCOPUS:74549154633
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 104
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 3
M1 - 038101
ER -