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Swimming by reciprocal motion at low Reynolds number.

  • Qiu T 1] Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Heisenbergstrasse 3, Stuttgart 70569, Germany [2] Institute of Bioengineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne CH-1015, Switzerland.
  • Lee TC Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Heisenbergstrasse 3, Stuttgart 70569, Germany.
  • Mark AG Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Heisenbergstrasse 3, Stuttgart 70569, Germany.
  • Morozov KI Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
  • Münster R Institute of Applied Mathematics (LS III), TU Dortmund, Vogelpothsweg 87, Dortmund 44227, Germany.
  • Mierka O Institute of Applied Mathematics (LS III), TU Dortmund, Vogelpothsweg 87, Dortmund 44227, Germany.
  • Turek S Institute of Applied Mathematics (LS III), TU Dortmund, Vogelpothsweg 87, Dortmund 44227, Germany.
  • Leshansky AM 1] Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel [2] Technion Autonomous Systems Program (TASP), Haifa 32000, Israel.
  • Fischer P 1] Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Heisenbergstrasse 3, Stuttgart 70569, Germany [2] Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Universität Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 55, Stuttgart 70569, Germany.
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  • 2014-11-05
Published in:
  • Nature communications. - 2014
Animals
Biomechanical Phenomena
Cell Movement
Models, Biological
Pectinidae
Swimming
Viscosity
English Biological microorganisms swim with flagella and cilia that execute nonreciprocal motions for low Reynolds number (Re) propulsion in viscous fluids. This symmetry requirement is a consequence of Purcell's scallop theorem, which complicates the actuation scheme needed by microswimmers. However, most biomedically important fluids are non-Newtonian where the scallop theorem no longer holds. It should therefore be possible to realize a microswimmer that moves with reciprocal periodic body-shape changes in non-Newtonian fluids. Here we report a symmetric 'micro-scallop', a single-hinge microswimmer that can propel in shear thickening and shear thinning (non-Newtonian) fluids by reciprocal motion at low Re. Excellent agreement between our measurements and both numerical and analytical theoretical predictions indicates that the net propulsion is caused by modulation of the fluid viscosity upon varying the shear rate. This reciprocal swimming mechanism opens new possibilities in designing biomedical microdevices that can propel by a simple actuation scheme in non-Newtonian biological fluids.
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  • English
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hybrid
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https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/190402
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