Efficient shapes for microswimming: From three-body swimmers to helical flagella.

We combine a general formulation of microswimmer equations of motion with a numerical bead-shell model to calculate the hydrodynamic interactions with the fluid, from which the swimming speed, power, and efficiency are extracted. From this framework, a generalized Scallop theorem emerges. The applicability to arbitrary shapes allows for the optimization of the efficiency with respect to the swimmer geometry. We apply this scheme to "three-body swimmers" of various shapes and find that the efficiency is characterized by the single-body friction coefficient in the long-arm regime, while in the short-arm regime the minimal approachable distance becomes the determining factor. Next, we apply this scheme to a biologically inspired set of swimmers that propel using a rotating helical flagellum. Interestingly, we find two distinct optimal shapes, one of which is fundamentally different from the shapes observed in nature (e.g., bacteria).

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  Journal of Chemical Physics

• Publication date

  2016-03-08

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Physics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1063/1.4976647arXiv 1603.02629PMID 28249423
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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