Flexive and Propulsive Dynamics of Elastica at Low Reynolds Numbers

Abstract

A stiff one-armed swimmer in glycerine goes nowhere, but if its arm is elastic, exerting a restorative torque proportional to local curvature, the swimmer can go on its way. Considering this happy consequence and the principles of elasticity, we study a hyperdiffusion equation for the shape of the elastica in viscous flow, find solutions for impulsive or oscillatory forcing, and elucidate relevant aspects of propulsion. These results have application in a variety of physical and biological contexts, from dynamic biopolymer bending experiments to instabilities of elastic filaments.

4 pages, 4 eps figs, RevTeX, submitted to PRL

References in corpus (2)

• Trapping and Wiggling: Elastohydrodynamics of Driven Microfilaments
• Elastohydrodynamic study of actin filaments using fluorescence microscopy

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