Magnetic microrod locomotion in a viscous uid in rotating field

Abstract

In recent years the study of propulsion of microparticles immersed in liquids has received a lot of attention. Motivated by experiments carried out by Dr. Pietro's group, we studied the movement of a nickel magnetic filament (specifically a cylindrical microrod) immersed in a viscous uid with a bounding wall, whose propulsion method will be the application of a rotating magnetic eld. The study is divided into two parts: theoretical analysis and motion simulation. The results presented show a strong dependence between the filament/microrod velocity and the frequency and the existence of a critical frequency that we have calculated with theoretical arguments and it agrees with the simulations. Our simulations show a new regime of locomotion which was not proved in experiment.