Exact solutions for cylindrical ‘slip–stick’ Janus swimmers in Stokes flow

Abstract

AbstractA Janus swimmer is any force-free, torque-free organism, particle or micro-robot operating at low Reynolds numbers and having contiguous regions of its boundary on which different boundary conditions are in play. In this paper we study a ‘slip–stick’ Janus swimmer theoretically within a two-dimensional model. The boundary of the swimmer is split into two zones: its motion is driven by an imposed tangential stress on a portion of the boundary with the complement taken to be a no-slip surface. The Stokes flow generated by the swimmer, and its swimming speed, are determined in closed analytical form as a function of the angle over which the stress actuation is active.