Massive Linear Swimmers at Low Reynolds Number
Two possibilities of description of swimmers’ motion, the stroke-based as well as the force-based one, are showcased, both of which are subsequently compared to lattice-Boltzmann simulations. After establishing the aforementioned analytical framework, we present a thorough study on the importance of inertia in the swimming process of the minimal inertial swimmer, i.e. a dumbbell, as well as the. archetypical linear micro-swimmer, i.e. three bead swimmer. These inertia-afflicted velocity expressions are then compared to experiments utilizing the magnetocapillary swimmers as well as lattice-Boltzmann simulations. We see a very good agreement with respect to the simulations and experiments in case of the dumbbell model, which has no micro-swimming counterpart. Meanwhile, the inertial three bead model compares considerably better to the results obtained from lattice-Boltzmann simulations than their respective inertia free analogue.