Collective Entrainment and Confinement Amplify Transport by Schooling Microswimmers

Micro-swimmers can serve as cargo carriers that move deep inside complex flow networks. When a school collectively entrains the surrounding fluid, their transport capacity be enhanced. This effect is quantified with good agreement between experiments self-propelled droplets and confined Brinkman squirmer model. The volume of liquid entrained much larger than droplet itself, amplifying effective over an order magnitude, even for dilute schools. Hence, biological engineered swimmers efficiently materials into environments.