Abstract
Bacteria swim to the better environments with the thrust produced by a rotating helical flagellum. The mechanism of swimming bacteria has been studied for the application to micro machines such as medical micro chips. We simulate the phenomenon of a swimming bacterium with the aid of a commercial software, CFX4, and analyze the mechanism by estimating the pressure, friction and moment acting on the bacterium. The effective ratio of the rotation speeds of the body and of the helical flagellum of the bacterium, and the relation between the rotation speed of the flagellum and thrust are found out. The results will be useful for designing a micro machine moving with a rotating helical flagellum.
