| Abstract: |
| We describe a fluid-mechanical model of an individual sperm which incorporates discrete representations of the dynein arms, the passive elastic structure of the axoneme including the microtubules and nexin links. This model couples the internal force generation of the molecular motors through the passive elastic structure with the external fluid mechanics governed by the Navier-Stokes equations. The representation of the dynein motors gives us the flexibility to incorporate various dynein activation theories. Here we use a simple activation mechanism based on local curvature with a time delay. The
flagellar beat is not preset and is an emergent property of the interacting components of the coupled fluid-axoneme system. Numerical results demonstrate strong qualitative agreement with sperm experimental data and show a highly nonlinear response to increasing viscosity. |
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