Numerical modelling of chirality-induced bi-directional swimming of artificial flagella

S. Namdeo, S. N. Khaderi, P. R. Onck*

*Corresponding author voor dit werk

OnderzoeksoutputAcademicpeer review

16 Citaten (Scopus)

Samenvatting

Biomimetic micro-swimmers can be used for various medical applications, such as targeted drug delivery and micro-object (e. g. biological cells) manipulation, in lab-on-a-chip devices. Bacteria swim using a bundle of flagella (flexible hair-like structures) that form a rotating cork-screw of chiral shape. To mimic bacterial swimming, we employ a computational approach to design a bacterial (chirality-induced) swimmer whose chiral shape and rotational velocity can be controlled by an external magnetic field. In our model, we numerically solve the coupled governing equations that describe the system dynamics (i.e. solid mechanics, fluid dynamics and magnetostatics). We explore the swimming response as a function of the characteristic dimensionless parameters and put special emphasis on controlling the swimming direction. Our results provide fundamental physical insight on the chirality-induced propulsion, and it provides guidelines for the design of magnetic bi-directional micro-swimmers.

Originele taal-2English
Artikelnummer20130547
Aantal pagina's18
TijdschriftProceedings of the Royal Society A-Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences
Volume470
Nummer van het tijdschrift2162
DOI's
StatusPublished - 8-feb.-2014

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