Abstract
Magnetic filaments driven by external magnetic field are an interesting topic of research in-terms of the possible bio-medical applications. In this paper, we investigated the applicability of using ferromagnetic filaments as micro swimmers both experimentally and numerically. It was found that applying a pulse wave field profile with a duty cycle of 30% induced experimentally observable swimming, which is similar to the breast stroke of micro algae. Good agreement with numerical simulations was found. Moreover, for stable continuous swimming, an initial filament shape is required to avoid transition to the structurally preferred non-swimming S-like mode.
Highlights
Magnetic filaments driven by external magnetic field are an interesting topic of research in-terms of the possible bio-medical applications
Different designs of artificial micro-swimmers have been presented in the literature which are often inspired by biological microorganisms that uses a flagella to propel, for example, helical devices controlled by a rotating magnetic field[4] and beating flagella driven by oscillating a transverse magnetic field[5]
We investigate the dynamics of a micro swimmer made from a flexible ferromagnetic particle chain and actuated by a pulse magnetic field profile, which propels by similar mechanism as Chlamydomonos Reinhardi micro a lgae[6]
Summary
Magnetic filaments driven by external magnetic field are an interesting topic of research in-terms of the possible bio-medical applications. Magnetic filaments may be synthesised by linking para- or ferromagnetic particles by some linker in order to obtain chains similar to the chains of magnetosomes found in the magnetotactic b acteria[7] The feasibility of such a micro-swimmer design was first investigated numerically by Belovs and Cēbers[8]. The filament propels by breaking its time reversal symmetry as a result of the buckling instability when a static magnetic field is inverted, due to the difference between the bending and relaxation times This is similar to the well-known Euler instability of a rod under the c ompression[9]. Previous published experimental studies for artificial micro-swimmers actuated by a magnetic field, for example as presented in23,24, have been focused on using para-magnetic material to form flexible chains. We discuss the conditions required to form the ‘U’ shaped configuration and ways to optimise the swimming velocity
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