Noisy swimming at low Reynolds numbers.

نویسندگان

  • Jörn Dunkel
  • Irwin M Zaid
چکیده

Small organisms (e.g., bacteria) and artificial microswimmers move due to a combination of active swimming and passive Brownian motion. Considering a simplified linear three-sphere swimmer, we study how the swimmer size regulates the interplay between self-driven and diffusive behavior at low Reynolds number. Starting from the Kirkwood-Smoluchowski equation and its corresponding Langevin equation, we derive formulas for the orientation correlation time, the mean velocity and the mean-square displacement in three space dimensions. The validity of the analytical results is illustrated through numerical simulations. Tuning the swimmer parameters to values that are typical of bacteria, we find three characteristic regimes: (i) Brownian motion at small times, (ii) quasiballistic behavior at intermediate time scales, and (iii) quasidiffusive behavior at large times due to noise-induced rotation. Our analytical results can be useful for a better quantitative understanding of optimal foraging strategies in bacterial systems, and they can help to construct more efficient artificial microswimmers in fluctuating fluids.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Hydrodynamic synchronization of flagellar oscillators

In this review, we highlight the physics of synchronization in collections of beating cilia and flagella. We survey the theory synchronization in collections of noisy oscillators. This framework is applied to flagellar synchronization by hydrodynamic interactions. The time-reversibility of hydrodynamics at low Reynolds numbers prompts swimming strokes that break symmetry to facilitate hydrodyna...

متن کامل

Optimal swimming at low Reynolds numbers.

Efficient swimming at low Reynolds numbers is a major concern of microbots. To compare the efficiencies of different swimmers we introduce the notion of "a swimming drag coefficient" which allows for the ranking of swimmers. We find the optimal swimmer within a certain class of two-dimensional swimmers using conformal mapping techniques.

متن کامل

Three Dimensional Analysis of Flow Past a Solid-Sphere at Low Reynolds Numbers with the Aid of Body Fitted Coordinates

In this paper, the flow-field of an incompressible viscous flow past a solid-sphere at low Reynolds numbers (up to 270) is investigated numerically. In order to extend the capabilities of the finite volume method, the boundary (body) fitted coordinates (BFC) method is used. Transformation of the partial differential equations to algebraic relations is based on the finite-volume method with coll...

متن کامل

Three Dimensional Analysis of Flow Past a Solid-Sphere at Low Reynolds Numbers with the Aid of Body Fitted Coordinates

In this paper, the flow-field of an incompressible viscous flow past a solid-sphere at low Reynolds numbers (up to 270) is investigated numerically. In order to extend the capabilities of the finite volume method, the boundary (body) fitted coordinates (BFC) method is used. Transformation of the partial differential equations to algebraic relations is based on the finite-volume method with coll...

متن کامل

Connection Vector Fields and Optimized Coordinates for Swimming Systems at Low and High Reynolds Numbers

Several efforts have recently been made to relate the displacement of swimming three-link systems over strokes to geometric quantities of the strokes. While this approach has been successful for finding net rotations, noncommutivity concerns have prevented it from working for net translations. Our recent results on other locomoting systems have shown that the degree of this noncommutivity is de...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:
  • Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics

دوره 80 2 Pt 1  شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2009