Effect of body deformability on microswimming

TL;DR

This study investigates how the deformability of a microswimmer's body affects its propulsion, revealing that elasticity can either enhance or hinder swimming speed depending on specific parameters, through analytical and simulation methods.

Contribution

The paper introduces an analytical model linking bead deformability to swimming velocity and validates it with simulations, highlighting the dual role of elasticity in microswimming.

Findings

Deformability can both promote and hinder swimmer velocity.

Only the driving frequency mode influences velocity at lowest order.

Simulations confirm analytical predictions across parameter ranges.

Abstract

In this work we consider the following question: given a mechanical microswimming mechanism, does increased deformability of the swimmer body hinder or promote the motility of the swimmer? To answer this we study a microswimmer model composed of deformable beads connected with springs. We determine the velocity of the swimmer analytically, starting from the forces driving the motion and assuming that the oscillations in the effective radii of the beads are known and are much smaller than the radii themselves. We find that to the lowest order, only the driving frequency mode of the surface oscillations contributes to the swimming velocity, and that this velocity may both rise and fall with the deformability of the beads depending on the spring constant. To test these results, we run immersed boundary lattice Boltzmann simulations of the swimmer, and show that they reproduce both the velocity-promoting and velocity-hindering effects of bead deformability correctly in the predicted parameter ranges. Our results mean that for a general swimmer, its elasticity determines whether passive deformations of the swimmer body, induced by the fluid flow, aid or oppose the motion.