Optimal slip velocities of micro-swimmers with arbitrary axisymmetric shapes

This article presents a computational approach for determining the optimal slip velocities on any given shape of an axisymmetric micro-swimmer suspended in a viscous fluid. The objective is to minimize the power loss to maintain a target swimming speed, or equivalently to maximize the efficiency of the micro-swimmer. Owing to the linearity of the Stokes equations governing the fluid motion, we show that this PDE-constrained optimization problem reduces to a simpler quadratic optimization problem, whose solution is found using a high-order accurate boundary integral method. We consider various families of shapes parameterized by the reduced volume and compute their swimming efficiency. Among those, prolate spheroids were found to be the most efficient micro-swimmer shapes for a given reduced volume. We propose a simple shape-based scalar metric that can determine whether the optimal slip on a given shape makes it a pusher, a puller or a neutral swimmer.

Automated summary

This article introduces a computational approach to determine the optimal slip velocities on any given shape of an axisymmetric micro-swimmer in a viscous fluid. By simplifying the PDE-constrained optimization problem into a quadratic optimization problem, the solution is found using a high-order accurate boundary integral method. Prolate spheroids were identified as the most efficient micro-swimmer shapes for a given reduced volume, and a shape-based scalar metric was proposed to determine the optimal slip behavior on a given shape.