2011/11/10 by Ghani Oukhaled, Abdelghani Oukhaled, A. Cēbers +10
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #Characterization and Applications of Magnetic Nanoparticles #FOS: Physical sciences #Micro and Nano Robotics #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #cond-mat.soft #physics.bio-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1111.2485
arxiv created 2011/11/10 · openalex publication_date 2011/11/10 · arxiv updated 2011/11/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present an artificial swimmer consisting in a long cylinder of ferrogel which is polarized transversely and in opposite directions at each extremity. When it is placed on a water film and submitted to a transverse oscillating magnetic field, this artificial worm undulates and swims. Whereas symmetry breaking is due to the field gradient, the undulations of the worm result from a torsional buckling instability as the polarized ends tend to align with the applied magnetic field. The critical magnetic field above which buckling and subsequent swimming is observed may be predicted using elasticity equations including the effect of a magnetic torque. As the length of the worm is varied, several undulation modes are observed which are in good agreement with the bending modes of an elastic rod with free ends.