Berlin 2008 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 10: Self Propulsion

BP 10.2: Talk

Tuesday, February 26, 2008, 14:15–14:30, C 243

Theory and simulation of artificial cilia — •Matthew Downton and Holger Stark — Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin, 10623 Berlin, Germany

We present simulations that explore the possibility of creating magnetically actuated artificial cilia. Motivated by experiments on an artificial swimmer[1,2], we analyse a model that consists of a simple bead-spring chain interacting with an external magnetic field able to induce a magnetic moment in the beads. Low Reynolds number hydrodynamic interactions are introduced at the Rotne-Prager level and different beating kinematics of the filament are studied by varying the time dependence of the applied field. We examine separate cases of the beating pattern of individual filaments and use a measure of propulsion to study their ability to transport fluid. The behavior of multiple interacting filaments is also studied. By choosing the phases of the actuating magnetic fields separately for each filament, we are able to study how phase shifts between neighboring filaments influence the dissipated energy and the propulsive performance of several filaments. This might be important for the understanding of the so-called metachronal waves that occur in fields of biological cilia.

[1] Dreyfus et al., Nature, 437, 862 (2005)

[2] Gauger and Stark, Phys. Rev. E, 74, 021907 (2006)