TY - JOUR
T1 - Collective Entrainment and Confinement Amplify Transport by Schooling Microswimmers
AU - Jin, Chenyu
AU - Chen, Yibo
AU - Maass, Corinna C.
AU - Mathijssen, Arnold J.T.M.
N1 - Funding Information:
A. M. acknowledges funding from the Human Frontier Science Program (Fellowship LT001670/2017) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-NIFA AFRI Grants No. 2020-67017-30776 and No. 2020-67015-32330). C. C. M. and C. J. acknowledge funding from the BMBF/MPG MaxSynBio initiative and the DFG SPP 1726 “Microswimmers.”
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Physical Society.
PY - 2021/8/20
Y1 - 2021/8/20
N2 - Microswimmers can serve as cargo carriers that move deep inside complex flow networks. When a school collectively entrains the surrounding fluid, their transport capacity can be enhanced. This effect is quantified with good agreement between experiments with self-propelled droplets and a confined Brinkman squirmer model. The volume of liquid entrained can be much larger than the droplet itself, amplifying the effective cargo capacity over an order of magnitude, even for dilute schools. Hence, biological and engineered swimmers can efficiently transport materials into confined environments.
AB - Microswimmers can serve as cargo carriers that move deep inside complex flow networks. When a school collectively entrains the surrounding fluid, their transport capacity can be enhanced. This effect is quantified with good agreement between experiments with self-propelled droplets and a confined Brinkman squirmer model. The volume of liquid entrained can be much larger than the droplet itself, amplifying the effective cargo capacity over an order of magnitude, even for dilute schools. Hence, biological and engineered swimmers can efficiently transport materials into confined environments.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113601241&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.088006
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.088006
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85113601241
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 127
JO - Physical review letters
JF - Physical review letters
IS - 8
M1 - 088006
ER -