Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 12: Microswimmers I (Joint Session DY/BP)
BP 12.10: Talk
Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 12:30–12:45, HÜL 186
Swimming by buckling: low Reynolds number swimming by shape hysteresis — •Horst-Holger Boltz1,2 and Jan Kierfeld2 — 1Institut für nichtlineare Dynamik, Fakultät Physik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Deutschland — 2Fakultät Physik, Technische Universität Dortmund, Dortmund, Deutschland
We present a low Reynolds number swimming concept based on an oscillatory change in a parameter controlling a hysteretic shape transition, which converts the time-reversible parameter changes into non-time-reversible shape changes leading to a net swimming motion. As realization of this general concept we propose and investigate the swimming locomotion of a spherical elastic capsule that undergoes repeated hysteretic buckling under a time-reversible periodic volume change. We show analytically and by numerical simulation based on the boundary integral method that the hysteretic switching gives rise to net locomotion at low Reynolds numbers. We characterize the swimming mechanism and its efficiency in dependence on the elastic properties capsule and derive the characteristic behaviour of the net swimming velocity.