Simulation of Planar Wave Flagellar Propulsion of Nanorobots using COMSOL

Abstract

Advancement in the field of Nanorobotics has been facilitated by the current advances in Nano-bio-technology and nanofabrication techniques. Nanorobots can be used in the advancement of medical technology, healthcare and environment monitoring and swim in biological fluids flowing in narrow channels of a few hundred nanometers in the area of bio-medical engineering. The pronounced effects in nanometer scale such as increased apparent viscosity and low Reynolds number make the designing of propulsion mechanism a challenging task. Prominent modes of flagellar locomotion in micro-sized biological organisms are by generating planar waves or through helical rotation. The present work attempts to numerically simulate the shape form of the tail of a swimming nanorobot by solving the governing equation of its flagellar hydro-dynamics. It corroborates with the analytical studies aimed at the modeling of Nanorobot dynamics thorough planar wave propagation.