Magnetically Driven Elastomer Fibers for Flow Manipulation

Hair-like structures interact with fluid in nature across a wide range of length scales. The microscale cilia in human lungs direct mucus to the esophagus to clear contaminants while crustaceans whip their larger hairs through the water for chemosensing. We investigate flow control through thin fibers via an artificial system composed of a magnetically responsive elastomer. By moving an external permanent magnet, we tune the magnetic field to move the fibers as a metachronal wave. By manipulating the Reynolds number, we evaluate the resulting flow regime via particle image velocimetry (PIV) in a closed loop system.