Elastohydrodynamical instabilities of active filaments, arrays, and carpets analyzed using slender-body theory

Abstract

A linear stability theory is developed to examine the conditions under which self-sustained oscillations occur in elastic filaments attached to a sphere or a wall subject to uniform force applied parallel to the axis of the filament. We shown that N equi-spaced filaments attached to a wall can undergo N different oscillation modes. The mode of first oscillation onset as the magnitude of the tangential force is increased, however, always corresponds to the mode of all filaments oscillating together in-phase. The figure shows the critical load and emergent frequency at the onset of instability for filaments oscillating in phase.