The Scallop Theorem and Swimming at the Mesoscale

Abstract

By synergistically combining modeling, simulation and experiments, we show that there exists a regime of self-propulsion in which the inertia in the fluid dynamics can be separated from that of the swimmer. This is demonstrated by the motion of an asymmetric dumbbell that, despite deforming in a reciprocal fashion, self-propagates in a fluid due to a non-reciprocal Stokesian flow field. The latter arises from the difference in the coasting times of the two constitutive beads. This asymmetry acts as a second degree of freedom, recovering the scallop theorem at the mesoscopic scale.

arXiv commentMain article: 4 pages, 3 figures. SI (for methods and calculations): 7 pages, no figure, 1 movie

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• Reciprocal swimming at intermediate Reynolds number
• Hydrodynamic particle interactions in linear and radial viscosity gradients
• Regimes of motion of magnetocapillary swimmers
• Lattice Boltzmann simulations of two linear microswimmers using the immersed boundary method
• Optimizing the Mean Swimming Velocity of a Model Two-sphere Swimmer
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