Elongated swimmers in laminar and turbulent flows

ORAL

Abstract

We consider the motion of spheroidal, axisymmetric microorganisms swimming in

laminar and turbulent flows.

By means of direct numerical simulations, supported by analytical calculation

in a simplified stochastic setting, we find that in general elongated swimmers

are able to align with the local velocity.

The preferential swimming direction also produces an accumulation of

microorganisms with an intensity which depends on the parameters of the flow.

We discuss the relevance of our results for applications and aquatic ecology.

*We thank the support by the INFN FieldTurb initiative and the Vetenskapsra°det, Grant No. 2018-03974

Publication: M. Borgnino, G. Boffetta, M. Cencini, F. De Lillo and K. Gustavsson "Alignment of elongated swimmers in a laminar and turbulent Kolmogorov flow", Phys. Rev. Fluids 7, 074603 (2022)

Presenters

  • Guido Boffetta

    • University of Torino

Authors

  • Guido Boffetta

    • University of Torino
  • Massimo Cencini

    • ISC-CNR
    • CNR-ISC & INFN Tor Vergata
  • Matteo Borgnino

    • University of Milano Bicocca
    • Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
  • Filippo De Lillo

    • Università di Torino
  • Kristian Gustavsson

    • University of Gothenburg