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Undulatory swimming in non-Newtonian fluids

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2015

Gaojin Li  and
Arezoo M. Ardekani
Gaojin Li
Affiliation:
School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 585 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
Arezoo M. Ardekani*
Affiliation:
School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 585 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: ardekani@purdue.edu
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Abstract

We numerically investigate the effects of non-Newtonian fluid properties, including shear thinning and elasticity, on the locomotion of Taylor’s swimming sheet with arbitrary amplitude. Our results show that elasticity hinders the swimming speed, but a shear-thinning viscosity in the absence of elasticity enhances the speed. The combination of the two effects, modelled using a Giesekus constitutive equation, hinders the swimming speed. We find that the swimming speed of an infinitely long waving sheet in an inelastic shear-thinning fluid has a maximum, whose value depends on the sheet undulation amplitude and the fluid rheological properties. The power consumption, on the other hand, follows a universal scaling law.

JFM classification

Complex Fluids: Complex Fluids Biological Fluid Dynamics: Micro-organism dynamics Biological Fluid Dynamics: Swimming/flying
Type
Rapids
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 784 , 10 December 2015 , R4
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Copyright
© 2015 Cambridge University Press 

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