Research on the structure of bio-inspired bacterial flagellum propeller

By observing the bacterial flagellum, this paper proposed four types of bio-inspiration flagellum: cylindrical helix with round cross-section, conical helix with round cross-section, cylindrical helix with rectangular cross-section, and conical helix with rectangular cross-section. The resistance force theory (RFT) is applied to establish the theoretical models of each kind of flagellum. The maximum propulsive force and a new value κ are taken as indicators to evaluate the performances of four propellers. Finally, the Fluent software is utilized to verify the theoretical analysis results qualitatively. All these work will provide some guidance to the application of flagella-like propellers.