Hydrodynamic interaction between two swimmers at low Reynolds number.
We investigate the hydrodynamic interactions between micro-organisms swimming at low Reynolds number. By considering simple model swimmers, and combining analytic and numerical approaches, we investigate the time-averaged flow field around a swimmer. At short distances the swimmer behaves like a pump. At large distances the velocity field depends on whether the swimming stroke is invariant under a combined time-reversal and parity transformation. We then consider two swimmers and find that the interaction between them consists of two parts: a passive term, independent of the motion of the second swimmer, and an active term resulting from the simultaneous swimming action of both swimmers. The swimmer-swimmer interaction is a complicated function of their relative displacement, orientation, and phase, leading to motion that can be attractive, repulsive, or oscillatory.
Pooley
C M
CM
Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom.
Alexander
G P
GP
Yeomans
J M
JM
D000818:Animals; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D010247:Paramecium / Q000502:physiology