| Issue |
EPL
Volume 143, Number 1, July 2023
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 17003 | |
| Number of page(s) | 7 | |
| Section | Biological and soft matter physics | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/acdf18 | |
| Published online | 03 July 2023 | |
Dynamics of squirmers in explicitly modeled polymeric fluids(a)
Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna - Kolingasse 14-16, 1090 Wien, Austria and Institute for Theoretical Physics, TU Wien - Wiedner Hauptstr. 8-10, 1040 Wien, Austria
(b) E-mail: andreas.zoettl@univie.ac.at (corresponding author)
Received: 10 February 2023
Accepted: 16 June 2023
Biological microswimmers such as bacteria and sperm cells often encounter complex biological fluid environments. Here we use the well-known squirmer microswimmer model to show the importance of the local fluid microstructure and non-continuum effects on their swimming speed in different polymeric and filamentous fluids. Surprisingly, we find that different squirmer types move at considerably different speed in filamentous fluids which cannot be explained by existing continuum models, but by considering the local fluid and polymer properties around the squirmers. Furthermore, direct squirmer-polymer interactions slow down in particular pushers by trapping large stiff filaments in a self-generated recirculation region in front of them.
© 2023 The author(s)
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