Cargo Towing by Microswimmer Near a Wall in Low Reynolds Number Condition
摘要
Microswimming has gained more recognition in recent years due to its future candidature for biomedical applications like targeted drug delivery, micromanipulation, and in situ sensing. The nature of the medium where such in vivo applications are going to be performed is in a bounded fluid medium, where the wall is going to alter the fluid-swimmer dynamics. In this paper, we formulate the equation of motion of a two-link microswimmer moving near a wall. The hydrodynamic interaction between the swimmer and the wall is incorporated through the mobility matrix of the spherical head of the microswimmer. The swimmer tail is assumed to be magnetic and is driven by an external oscillatory magnetic field. The equation of motion was solved numerically, and then the kinematics of the swimmer were analyzed and compared with the case of swimming in an unbounded fluid. The results show that the swimmer’s trajectory is altered due to the wall. The time-averaged velocities are analyzed for different actuation frequencies and cargo size.