Swimming through axisymmetric paraboloidal flows

We investigate the propulsion of ciliated microorganisms in paraboloidal flows after deriving exact solutions for the flow and pressure fields. Our results show that the near-field flow has a strong dependence on the background flow. Moreover, the results reveal flow fields’ features, swimming characteristics and performance metrics markedly different compared to those generated in a uniform flow. We discuss the implications of our findings on hydrodynamic interactions and feeding.