Analyses on Propulsion Mechanism of Micro-Organism with a Helical Flagellum.

Propulsion of microorganisms by a helical flagellum.

The swimming of a bacterium or a biomimetic nanobot driven by a rotating helical flagellum is often interpreted using the resistive force theory developed by Gray and Hancock and by Lighthill, but this theory has not been tested for a range of physically relevant parameters. We test resistive force theory in experiments on macroscopic swimmers in a fluid that is highly viscous so the Reynolds n...

Propulsion by a helical flagellum in a capillary tube

Effects of geometric parameters on swimming of micro organisms with single helical flagellum in circular channels.

We present a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for the swimming of micro organisms with a single helical flagellum in circular channels. The CFD model is developed to obtain numerical solutions of Stokes equations in three dimensions, validated with experiments reported in literature, and used to analyze the effects of geometric parameters, such as the helical radius, wavelength, radii o...

The efficiency of propulsion by a rotating flagellum.

At very low Reynolds number, the regime in which fluid dynamics is governed by Stokes equations, a helix that translates along its axis under an external force but without an external torque will necessarily rotate. By the linearity of the Stokes equations, the same helix that is caused to rotate due to an external torque will necessarily translate. This is the physics that underlies the mechan...

Modular Micro Propulsion System

M.C. Louwerse, H.V. Jansen, J.L.P.A. Moerel, H.M. Sanders, B.T.C. Zandbergen Dept. of Transducer Science & Technology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands TNO Defence, Security and Safety, P.O. Box 45, 2280 AA Rijswijk, The Netherlands Dept. of Earth Observation and Space Systems, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5058, 2600 GB Delft, The Netherlands ema...