Stresslets Induced by Active Swimmers

Eric Lauga (1) , Sébastien Michelin (2)

1 DAMTP - Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
2 LadHyX - Laboratoire d'hydrodynamique

Active particles disturb the fluid around them as force dipoles, or stresslets, which govern their collective dynamics. Unlike swimming speeds, the stresslets of active particles are rarely determined due to the lack of a suitable theoretical framework for arbitrary geometry. We propose a general method, based on the reciprocal theorem of Stokes flows, to compute stresslets as integrals of the velocities on the particle's surface, which we illustrate for spheroidal chemically active particles. Our method will allow tuning the stresslet of artificial swimmers and tailoring their collective motion in complex environments.

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Eric Lauga, Sébastien Michelin. Stresslets Induced by Active Swimmers. Physical Review Letters, 2016, 117 (14), ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.148001⟩. ⟨hal-02104855⟩