Published in

American Institute of Physics, Physics of Fluids, 3(25), p. 031701, 2013

DOI: 10.1063/1.4795166

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Fluid elasticity increases the locomotion of flexible swimmers

Journal article published in 2013 by Julian Espinosa-Garcia, Eric Lauga ORCID, Roberto Zenit ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Orange circle
Published version: archiving restricted
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We conduct experiments with flexible swimmers to address the impact of fluid viscoelasticity on their locomotion. The swimmers are composed of a magnetic head actuated in rotation by a frequency-controlled magnetic field and a flexible tail whose deformation leads to forward propulsion. We consider both viscous Newtonian and glucose-based Boger fluids with similar viscosities. We find that the elasticity of the fluid systematically enhances the locomotion speed of the swimmer, and that this enhancement increases with Deborah number. Using Particle Image Velocimetry to visualize the flow field, we find a significant difference in the amount of shear between the rear and leading parts of the swimmer head. We conjecture that viscoelastic normal stresses lead to a net elastic forces in the swimming direction and thus a faster swimming speed. ; Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 3 videos