Optimal swimming of a sheet

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2014 Jun;89(6):060701. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.89.060701. Epub 2014 Jun 19.

Abstract

Propulsion at microscopic scales is often achieved through propagating traveling waves along hairlike organelles called flagella. Taylor's two-dimensional swimming sheet model is frequently used to provide insight into problems of flagellar propulsion. We derive numerically the large-amplitude wave form of the two-dimensional swimming sheet that yields optimum hydrodynamic efficiency: the ratio of the squared swimming speed to the rate-of-working of the sheet against the fluid. Using the boundary element method, we show that the optimal wave form is a front-back symmetric regularized cusp that is 25% more efficient than the optimal sine wave. This optimal two-dimensional shape is smooth, qualitatively different from the kinked form of Lighthill's optimal three-dimensional flagellum, not predicted by small-amplitude theory, and different from the smooth circular-arc-like shape of active elastic filaments.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Elasticity
  • Flagella / physiology
  • Hydrodynamics
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Motion*
  • Movement