Mechanisms of Elastic Enhancement and Hindrance for Finite-Length Undulatory Swimmers in Viscoelastic Fluids

Authors

Becca Thomases, University of California, DavisFollow
Robert D. Guy, University of California, Davis

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-27-2014

Publication Title

Physical Review Letters

Abstract

A computational model of finite-length undulatory swimmers is used to examine the physical origin of the effect of elasticity on swimming speed. We explore two distinct target swimming strokes: one derived from the motion of Caenorhabditis elegans, with large head undulations, and a contrasting stroke with large tail undulations. We show that both favorable stroke asymmetry and swimmer elasticity contribute to a speed-up, but a substantial boost results only when these two effects work together. We reproduce conflicting results from the literature simply by changing relevant physical parameters.

Volume

113

Issue

9

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.098102

ISSN

00319007

Rights

© 2014 American Physical Society.

Comments

Archived as published.

Recommended Citation

Thomases, Becca and Guy, Robert D., "Mechanisms of Elastic Enhancement and Hindrance for Finite-Length Undulatory Swimmers in Viscoelastic Fluids" (2014). Mathematics Sciences: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/mth_facpubs/168