Journal
EPL
Volume 86, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
EDP SCIENCES S A
DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/86/64001
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Funding
- US National Science Foundation [CTS-0624830, CBET-0746285]
- Directorate For Engineering
- Div Of Chem, Bioeng, Env, & Transp Sys [0746285] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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In many biological systems, microorganisms swim through complex polymeric fluids, and usually deform the medium at a rate faster than the inverse fluid relaxation time. We address the basic properties of such life at high Deborah number analytically by considering the small-amplitude swimming of a body in an arbitrary complex fluid. Using asymptotic analysis and differential geometry, we show that for a given swimming gait, the time-averaged leading-order swimming kinematics of the body can be expressed as an integral equation on the solution to a series of simpler Newtonian problems. We then use our results to demonstrate that Purcell's scallop theorem, which states that time-reversible body motion cannot be used for locomotion in a Newtonian fluid, breaks down in polymeric fluid environments. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2009
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