Motion at low Reynolds number

The work described in this thesis centers on inertialess motion at low Reynolds numbers at the crossroad between biofluids and microfluids. Here we address questions regarding locomotion of micro-swimmers, transport of nutrient around micro-organisms as well as mixing and heat exchange inside micro-droplets of water. A general framework for the investigation of optimal locomotion strategies for slender swimmers has been developed and applied to different systems. Here we exclusively study the hydrodynamical aspects of locomotion without further consideration for the swimmers internal dynamics. The first system studied is the "three-link" swimmer, first introduced and discussed by Nobel prize laureate E.M. Purcell in his famous lecture "Life at low Reynolds number" [121]. For this simple swimmer, we find and later discuss optimal stroke kinematics and swimmer geometries. We then further investigate flagellated swimmers and verify the convergence of the optimization procedure in the case of a single flagellum, for which the optimal stroke kinematics are known analytically. Optimal stroke kinematics and geometries for unifiagellates are also computed and found to be relevant in the context of biological microorganisms.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Tam, Daniel See Wai, 1980-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• A. E. Hosoi.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/49682

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/49682