Figure 4.
Results from the numerical simulation of a sperm with the planar waveform I of figure 2b. (a) The computed perpendicular force upon the surface with initial angles θinit = 0.1π, 0.2π, 0.3π, and the bond strength fixed at K = 104; all these sperm ultimately escape the surface owing to the low bond strength. (b) The absolute value of the horizontal force acting on the wall for the sperm in plot (a). The simulation parameters and the colours of the plots are the same as in (a). (c) The perpendicular force upon the wall for the different bond strengths and initial angle θinit = 0.2π. (d) The time evolution of the angle towards the wall. The parameters and the colour of the plots are the same as in (c), with a positive angle corresponding to the sperm oriented towards the substrate.