Travelling-wave stationarity of planar filament propulsion ($c=({\xi }_{\perp }-{\xi }_{\parallel })/(\Gamma {\xi }_{\perp })$)

For the leading periodic propulsive force of a periodic planar filament and power of a periodic planar filament functionals, the Euler-Lagrange equation for $F_x+\Gamma (\dot{W}-{\dot{W}}_0)$ gives $({\xi }_{\perp }-{\xi }_{\parallel })y_{xt}+\Gamma {\xi }_{\perp }{y}_{tt}=0$. For nonzero thrust, $y_t$ obeys an advection equation and the active travelling wave is $f(x-ct)$, with $c=({\xi }_{\perp }-{\xi }_{\parallel })/(\Gamma {\xi }_{\perp })$. A static periodic shape may be added without changing leading force or power. Stationarity is a necessary extremum condition, not by itself an existence theorem for a global maximum.

At fixed leading power of a periodic planar filament, the family $a\sin (mkx+\Omega t)$ has propulsive force of a periodic planar filament increasing with spatial harmonic $m$. The formal quadratic objective is unbounded without a spatial cutoff; large harmonics eventually invalidate the small-slope model. With a finite admissible Fourier series band, force divided by power is a weighted average of the signed ratios $-({\xi }_{\perp }-{\xi }_{\parallel })k_j/({\xi }_{\perp }{\Omega }_j)$. An allowed extremal ratio is attained by a travelling wave mode, or by a superposition with one common phase speed.