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  4. Dynamics of a flexible helical filament rotating in a viscous fluid near a rigid boundary
 
research article

Dynamics of a flexible helical filament rotating in a viscous fluid near a rigid boundary

Jawed, M. K.
•
Reis, Pedro M.  
2017
Physical Review Fluids

We study the effect of a no-slip rigid boundary on the dynamics of a flexible helical filament rotating in a viscous fluid, at low Reynolds number conditions (Stokes limit). This system is taken as a reduced model for the propulsion of uniflagellar bacteria, whose locomotion is known to be modified near solid boundaries. Specifically, we focus on how the propulsive force generated by the filament, as well as its buckling onset, are modified by the presence of a wall. We tackle this problem through numerical simulations that couple the elasticity of the filament, the hydrodynamic loading, and the wall effect. Each of these three ingredients is respectively modeled by the discrete elastic rods method (for a geometrically nonlinear description of the filament), Lighthill's slender body theory (for a nonlocal fluid force model), and the method of images (to emulate the boundary). The simulations are systematically validated by precision experiments on a rescaled macroscopic apparatus. We find that the propulsive force increases near the wall, while the critical rotation frequency for the onset of buckling usually decreases. A systematic parametric study is performed to quantify the dependence of the wall effects on the geometric parameters of the helical filament.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevFluids.2.034101
Author(s)
Jawed, M. K.
Reis, Pedro M.  
Date Issued

2017

Published in
Physical Review Fluids
Volume

2

Issue

3

Start page

034101

End page

1

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

OTHER

EPFL units
FLEXLAB  
Available on Infoscience
January 18, 2018
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/144296
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