Issue 1, 2022

On the cross-streamline lift of microswimmers in viscoelastic flows

Abstract

The current work studies the dynamics of a microswimmer in pressure-driven flow of a weakly viscoelastic fluid. Employing a second-order fluid model, we show that a self-propelling swimmer experiences a viscoelastic swimming lift in addition to the well-known passive lift that arises from its resistance to shear flow. Using the reciprocal theorem, we evaluate analytical expressions for the swimming lift experienced by neutral and pusher/puller-type swimmers and show that they depend on the hydrodynamic signature associated with the swimming mechanism. We find that, in comparison to passive particles, the focusing of neutral swimmers towards the centerline can be significantly accelerated, while for force-dipole swimmers no net modification in cross-streamline migration occurs.

Graphical abstract: On the cross-streamline lift of microswimmers in viscoelastic flows

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
15 Sep 2021
Accepted
24 Nov 2021
First published
24 Nov 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2022,18, 48-52

On the cross-streamline lift of microswimmers in viscoelastic flows

A. Choudhary and H. Stark, Soft Matter, 2022, 18, 48 DOI: 10.1039/D1SM01339D

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