In this talk, I will present recent results based on multi-timescale analysis and evaluating the long-term effects of high-frequency oscillations on translational and angular motion for various classical swimming models of micro-scale swimmers, with the purpose of assessing the relevance of neglecting these oscillations, and derive simplified equivalent models. In particular, I will focus on the celebrated Jeffery orbit model established in 1922, which can be, according to our results, surprisingly widely generalised to fast-shape-changing bodies, and provide an interpretation of these reduced models in terms of « effective shapes ».

This research was carried out in collaboration with M. P. Dalwadi, B. J. Walker (UCL), E. A. Gaffney (U. Oxford) and K. Ishimoto (U. Kyoto).