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Getting drowned in a swirl: Deformable bead-spring model microswimmers in external flow fields.

Niklas Küchler1, Hartmut Löwen1, Andreas M Menzel1

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Area of Science:

  • Theoretical soft matter physics
  • Microfluidics and non-equilibrium systems
  • Active matter physics

Background:

  • Deformability is a key characteristic of many microswimmers, including self-propelled droplets.
  • Understanding microswimmer behavior in complex flow fields is crucial for designing artificial micro-robots.
  • Externally imposed flow fields provide a controlled environment to study fundamental microswimmer dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To theoretically analyze the behavior of deformable bead-spring microswimmers in a two-dimensional circular swirl flow.
  • To investigate how swimmer geometry and activity influence their trajectories and dynamics within the flow.
  • To explore the emergence of complex orbital motions and rotations induced by the swirl flow.

Main Methods:

  • Development of a theoretical model for deformable bead-spring microswimmers.
  • Simulation of swimmer dynamics in a defined circular swirl flow field in two spatial dimensions.
  • Analysis of trajectories, orientation, and orbital characteristics as a function of swimmer activity and geometry.

Main Results:

  • Linear (two-bead) swimmers circle the swirl with a slight outward drift, increasing with activity.
  • Triangular (three-bead) and squarelike (four-bead) swimmers are drawn into the swirl center, despite the absence of a radial inward flow component.
  • Complex swimmers exhibit nearly constant self-propulsion direction, deformed 'egg-like' orbits, and induced net rotations, with orbital rotation sense potentially reversing near the flow singularity.

Conclusions:

  • The geometry and deformability of microswimmers significantly dictate their response to swirl flow fields.
  • Complex microswimmer shapes can be 'drowned' into flow singularities due to interactions with the flow field.
  • The study predicts novel rotational dynamics and orbital deformations that can be experimentally verified with artificial microswimmers.