Unsteady inertial effects on small swimming organisms
Shiyan Wang (University of Notre Dame), Arezoo Ardekani (University of Notre Dame)
Hydrodynamics of Swimming Microorganisms
Tue 10:45 - 12:15
Barus-Holley 191
Although the propulsion of micro-organisms has been extensively studied in the literature, current studies have mainly focused on their propulsion in the absence of inertia. Here, we quantify the effects of unsteady inertial forces in the limit of small Reynolds number regime. We derive the fundamental equation of motion for an unsteady micro-organism swimming in a non-uniform flow field. We show that the unsteady inertial effects, the history and added mass forces, are not negligible for finite Stokes number regime, potentially affecting a broad range of abundant sub-millimeter- to centimeter-size organisms living in oceans and lakes. This work is supported by the NSF Grant CBET-1066545.