Near and far-field hydrodynamic interaction of two chiral squirmers

TL;DR

This study analyzes the hydrodynamic interactions between two chiral squirmers at low Reynolds number, revealing how lubrication forces influence their motion and collective behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized chiral squirmer model and examines near and far-field interactions, including lubrication forces, to understand swimmer dynamics.

Findings

Lubrication forces can induce bounded oscillatory motion.

Swimmers either repel or exhibit bounded motion depending on parameters.

Hydrodynamic interactions depend on slip coefficients and initial configurations.

Abstract

Hydrodynamic interaction strongly influences the collective behavior of the microswimmers. With this work, we study the behavior of two hydrodynamically interacting self-propelled chiral swimmers in the low Reynolds number regime, considering both the near and far-field interactions. We use the chiral squirmer model, a spherically shaped body with non-axisymmetric surface slip velocity, which generalizes the well-known squirmer model. We calculate the lubrication force between the swimmers when they are very close to each other. By varying the slip coefficients and the initial configuration of the swimmers, we investigate their hydrodynamic behavior. In the presence of lubrication force, the swimmers either repel each other or exhibit bounded motion where the distance between the swimmers alters periodically. The lubrication force favors the bounded motion in some parameter regime. This study is helpful to understand the collective behavior of dense suspension of ciliated microorganisms and artificial swimmers.