Elastohydrodynamic coupling enhances flow generation by coordinated ciliary beating

Abstract

Ciliary arrays pump fluid at low Reynolds number through non-reciprocal beating and phase coordination between neighbouring cilia. Previous studies have demonstrated that antiplectic metachronal waves are more effective than symplectic waves in enhancing transport, and have proposed several physically intuitive explanations for this preference. What remains incomplete is a predictive analytical understanding of how hydrodynamic coupling and beat geometry determine the flow-maximising phase difference. Here, we address this problem in two steps: we first use reinforcement learning to identify flow-maximising coordination in a bead--spring cilia model, and then introduce an analytically tractable reduced model, termed a tilted-slider model, to analyse the weak-coupling limit. Reinforcement learning identifies antiplectic coordination as the flow-maximising state in linear arrays, and shows that the phase difference between neighbouring cilia accounts for most of the flow enhancement. We then use the tilted-slider model to show that a shift of the time-averaged position opposite to the effective-stroke direction enhances fluid transport through its coupling with the elastic restoring force. The reduced model further reveals that antiplectic coordination can be optimal, consistent with previous studies, whereas symplectic coordination can instead become optimal depending on beat geometry. These results identify a simple elastohydrodynamic mechanism underlying flow-maximising metachronal coordination.