Issue 28, 2024

Influence of the frequency on undulatory swimming speed in granular media

Abstract

Sand is a highly dissipative system, where the local spatial arrangements and densities depend strongly on the applied forces, resulting in fluid-like or solid-like behaviour. This makes sand swimming challenging and intriguing, raising questions about the nature of the motion and how to optimize the design of artificial swimmers able to swim in sand. Recent experiments suggest that lateral undulatory motion enables efficient locomotion, with a non-monotonic dependence of the swimming speed on the undulatory frequency and the height of the sediment bed. Here, we propose a 2D granular model, where the effect of the sediment height is modeled by an effective frictional force with the substrate. We show that the optimal frequency coincides with the second vibrational mode of the swimmer and explain the underlying mechanism through a characterization of the rheology of the medium. Potential implications in the design of artificial swimmers are discussed.

Graphical abstract: Influence of the frequency on undulatory swimming speed in granular media

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
22 Apr 2024
Accepted
28 Jun 2024
First published
02 Jul 2024

Soft Matter, 2024,20, 5583-5591

Influence of the frequency on undulatory swimming speed in granular media

I. Echeverría-Huarte, M. M. Telo da Gama and N. A. M. Araújo, Soft Matter, 2024, 20, 5583 DOI: 10.1039/D4SM00472H

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