A numerical study on swimming micro-organisms inside a capillary tube

ORAL

Abstract

The locomotivity of micro-organisms is highly dependent on the surrounding environments such as walls, free surface and neighbouring cells. In our current work, we perform simulations of swimming micro-organisms inside a capillary tube based on boundary element method. We focus on the swimming speed, power consumption and locomotive trajectory of swimming cells for different levels of confinement. For a cell propelling itself by tangential surface deformation, we show that it will swim along a helical trajectory with a specified swimming gait. Such a helical trajectory was observed before by experiments on swimming \textit{Paramecium} inside a capillary tube.

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Authors

  • Lailai Zhu

    Linne Flow Centre, KTH Mechanics

  • E. Lauga

    UCSD, University of California San Diego, University of California, San Diego, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Enginering, University of California San Diego, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, UCSD-MAE, University of California - San Diego

  • Luca Brandt

    KTH Mechanics, Stockholm, Sweden, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Linne Flow Centre, KTH Mechanics