Seminarium Zakładu Mechaniki i Fizyki Płynów "The swimming of animalcules" prof. B.U. Felderhof, RWTH Aachen, Germany (ABIOMED visiting professor) piątek, 25 listopada 2005

Bacteria and protozoa propel themselves in a fluid by swimming. On account of their small size the Reynolds number of the motion is small. It is of interest to investigate the efficiency of swimming in dependence on the shape of the animalcule, and to find the optimal mode of propulsion. Calculations have been performed for simple shapes on the basis of the Navier-Stokes equations for the fluid dynamics.