Results in Physics (Jun 2021)
Factors determining the relaxation time for elastohydrodynamic synchronization of adjacent beating flagella
Abstract
A pair of adjacent beating flagella can be synchronized via hydrodynamic interactions at low Reynolds numbers. Here, we investigate the factors that determine the relaxation time for elastohydrodynamic synchronization by using the phase reduction theory. The results show that the relaxation time is determined primarily by the natural frequency of a flagellum as well as the coupling intensity between the two flagella. After rescaling with both the natural frequency and the coupling intensity, the relaxation curves are found to be close to each other. This indicates that the number of beatings required for elastohydrodynamic synchronization remains almost unchanged regardless of the waveforms under a common coupling intensity.