Force- and Torque-Free Swimming in Shear-Thinning Fluids

Artificial bacteria are strong candidates to achieve biomedical applications such as drug delivery and minimally invasive surgery. Swimming characteristics of the force- and torque-free swimming of a bacterium with a helical tail in a Newtonian fluid has been studied extensively, however, many biological fluids are shear-thinning. In this talk, we will present the effects of shear-thinning rheology on the force- and torque-free swimming. Results of our computational study could help optimize the bioinspired artificial bacterium design and its actuation for use in biomedical applications.