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The Interaction between Toroidal Swimmers in Stokes Flow

he focus of this research has been devoted to study the interaction between two or more self-propelled toroidal swimmers in Stokes flow by applying the method of regularized Stokeslets and also study the effect of a nearby wall to the movement of a helical ring by using the method of regurlarized Stokeslets with images. In the study of the interaction between two or more toroidal swimmers, we interpret these as three-dimensional, zero Reynolds number analogues of finite vortex dipoles in an ideal fluid. Then, we examine the stability of relative equilibria that can form for these swimmers when they are initially placed in tandem or abreast. In addition, we examine the dynamics of the torus when a spherical cell body is placed at its center. This gives us an insight into the mechanical role of the transverse flagellum of dinoflagellates. Moreover, we show that the torus with a sphere moves more efficiently than one without. Lastly, we model the transverse flagellum of a dinoflagellate as a helical ring and study the effect of a nearby wall on its movement. The numerical results show that the wall baffles the movement of the helical ring, which is consistent with the phenomenon of sperm accumulation near surfaces. / acase@tulane.edu

  1. tulane:27859
Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_27859
Date January 2014
ContributorsHuang, Jianjun (Author), Fauci, Lisa (Thesis advisor)
PublisherTulane University
Source SetsTulane University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
RightsCopyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law

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