Abstract
Active flexible filaments form the classical continuum framework for modelling the locomotion of spermatozoa and algae driven by the periodic oscillation of flagella. This framework also applies to the locomotion of various artificial swimmers. Classical studies have quantified the relationship between internal forcing (localized or distributed internal moments or forces) and external output (filament shape and swimming speed). In this paper, we pose locomotion as a mathematical optimization problem and demonstrate that the swimming of an isolated active filament can be accurately described and optimized using a small number of eigenmodes, significantly reducing computational complexity. In particular, we reveal that the motion of a filament with monophasic forcing, relevant to recently proposed artificial swimmers, is governed by exactly four forcing eigenmodes, only two of which are independent. We further present optimizations of such swimmers under various constraints.This article is part of the theme issue 'Biological fluid dynamics: emerging directions'.