https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2012-12078-9
Regular Article
Dynamics of Purcell’s three-link microswimmer with a passive elastic tail
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
* e-mail: izi@tx.technion.ac.il
Received:
6
May
2012
Revised:
22
July
2012
Accepted:
25
July
2012
Published online:
23
August
2012
One of the few possible mechanisms for self-propulsion at low Reynolds number is undulations of a passive elastic tail, as proposed in the classical work of Purcell (1977). This effect is studied here by investigating a variant of Purcell’s three-link swimmer model where the front joint angle is periodically actuated while the rear joint is driven by a passive torsional spring. The dynamic equations of motion are formulated and explicit expressions for the leading-order solution are derived by using perturbation expansion. The dependence of the motion on the actuation amplitude and frequency is analyzed, and optimization with respect to the swimmer’s geometry is conducted.
Key words: Topical contribution
© EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2012