Fluid ‘Ratchets’ and Biological Locomotion

Speaker: Zhang Jun

Venue: Room 242, No.14 Teaching Building, Yuquan Campus

Abstract: Fluid-structure interactions (FSI) can give rise to fascinating and often counterintuitive phenomena. In this talk, we will explore three examples inspired by biological systems, in which net directional transport of mass or momentum emerges from seemingly simple, reciprocal back-and-forth motions. We refer to these mechanisms as fluid ratchets. Some of the resulting behaviors are particularly surprising, challenging conventional intuition about how fluid-structure systems respond to symmetric actuation. Together, these experimental studies highlight how fluid-structure interactions can rectify reciprocal motions into directed transport, offering new perspectives on the physical mechanisms of biological locomotion.