Experimental Investigations of Elastic Tail Propulsion at Low Reynolds Number

TL;DR

This paper presents an experimental study of elastic tail propulsion at low Reynolds number using a robotic swimmer, analyzing how filament shape and actuation influence propulsion, and comparing results with theoretical models.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive macroscopic experimental validation of elastic tail propulsion theories at low Reynolds number.

Findings

Filament shape and actuation significantly affect propulsion efficiency.

Experimental data aligns with both linear and nonlinear theoretical predictions.

The study offers insights for designing biomimetic micro-swimmers.

Abstract

A simple way to generate propulsion at low Reynolds number is to periodically oscillate a passive flexible filament. Here we present a macroscopic experimental investigation of such a propulsive mechanism. A robotic swimmer is constructed and both tail shape and propulsive force are measured. Filament characteristics and the actuation are varied and resulting data are quantitatively compared with existing linear and nonlinear theories.