Author(s)

Christoph Brücker¹, Uwe Schnakenberg², Alexander Rockenbach², Vladimir Mikulich³

¹Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics, City University, London, UK.
²Institute of Materials in Electrical Engineering 1, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
³Institute of Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics, TU Bergakademie, Freiberg, Germany.

A biomimetic approach is used to generate a directed transversal transportation of micron-sized particles in liquids based on the principle of cilia-type arrays in coordinated motion. Rows of flaps mimicking planar cilia are positioned off-centre along an array of cavities covered with membranes that support the flaps. These membranes are deflected from a concave to a convex shape and vice versa by pneumatic actuation applying positive and negative pressures (relative to the ambient) inside the cavities. As a result, the flap on top of the membrane tilts to the left or right within such a pressure cycle, performing a beat stroke. Since each cavity can be addressed in the device individually and in rapid succession, waves of coordinated flap motion can be run along the wall. Such metachronal waves are generated and transport of particles along the cilia surface is achieved in both symplectic and antiplectic direction. It is shown that the initial tilt of the flaps relative to the wall-normal determines the direction of transport.

Cilia Transport, Metachronal Wave, Fluidic Transport, Micro-Particles

Brücker, C. , Schnakenberg, U. , Rockenbach, A. and Mikulich, V. (2017) Effect of Cilia Orientation in Metachronal Transport of Microparticles. World Journal of Mechanics, 7, 1-10. doi: 10.4236/wjm.2017.71001.