Interactions between comoving magnetic microswimmers

Eric E. Keaveny and Martin R. Maxey
Phys. Rev. E 77, 041910 – Published 16 April 2008

Abstract

The artificial microswimmer [R. Dreyfus et al., Nature (London) 437, 862 (2005)] whose mechanism of propulsion is the magnetically driven undulation of a flagellum-like tail composed of chemically linked paramagnetic beads can be used as a physical model with which to study low-Reynolds-number swimming. Understanding how such swimmers interact provides insight into the related problem of quantifying the hydrodynamic interactions between microorganisms. In this study, particle-based numerical simulations are conducted of two comoving artificial swimmers. The resulting swimming speeds are determined over a range of separations for swimmers driven by planar and rotational magnetic fields. The far-field hydrodynamic interactions are analyzed and found to decay as h2 where h is the separation distance. Additionally, the role of the interswimmer magnetic forces is determined.

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  • Received 3 August 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.77.041910

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Eric E. Keaveny and Martin R. Maxey

  • Division of Applied Mathematics, Brown University, 182 George Street, Box F, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA

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Issue

Vol. 77, Iss. 4 — April 2008

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