• Corpus ID: 118680302

Orbits of swimmers around obstacles

@article{Papavassiliou2014OrbitsOS,
  title={Orbits of swimmers around obstacles},
  author={Dario Papavassiliou and Gareth P. Alexander},
  journal={arXiv: Fluid Dynamics},
  year={2014}
}

• Dario Papavassiliou, G. P. Alexander
• Published 4 July 2014
• Physics
• arXiv: Fluid Dynamics

We present a two dimensional model of hydrodynamic interaction between a circular swimmer and a circular post at low Reynolds number, using a point singularity description of the swimming activity. We derive a nonlinear dynamical system fully describing the motion and discuss the generic features of the phase portrait and typical trajectories for a variety of squirmer modes. Contractile swimmers exhibit stable bound orbits arising from the contrasting nature of monopolar and dipolar squirmer modes, which are robust with respect to swimmer size and the inclusion of higher squirmer modes. The behaviour of extensile swimmers is related through time reversal and their orbits are unstable, in qualitative agreement with experimental observations.