MEAM Master’s Thesis Defense: “A Computational Model of Caenorhabditis elegans Locomotion”

Since discovered in 1897, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has surfaced as an excellent model organism for medical and genetic research. The worm propels itself through viscous-dominated creeping flows via undulatory motion. Moreover, experiments have revealed that the netamode’s swimming gait alters as a function of fluid viscosity. In the current research, we proposed a new solid-mechanics-based auto-propulsion model featuring a closed-form displacement field that better captures the nematode’s swimming gait in water. A series of decoupled/coupled (Fluid-Structure Interaction) finite-element simulations exploiting the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (moving mesh) technique were then conducted to investigate how different gaits affect the free-swimming speed, and how the interaction with fluids of various viscosities and the presence of wall boundaries deviate the swimming gait from the solid-mechanics-based closed-form solution.