Magnetocapillary Swimmers
Fluid Dynamics
2013-10-14 v1 Soft Condensed Matter
Abstract
We present an experiment where three mesoscopic soft ferromagnetic beads are placed onto a liquid surface and submitted to the influence of magnetic fields. A vertical magnetic field creates a repulsion which counterbalances the capillary attraction. We show that the competition with a second, oscillating field, deforms the structure in a non reciprocal way. As a consequence, the structure is able to swim. This experiment is fully described in a fluid dynamics video attached to this submission.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1310.3094,
title = {Magnetocapillary Swimmers},
author = {Maxime Hubert and Galien Grosjean and Yves-Eric Corbisier and Geoffroy Lumay and Floriane Weyer and Noriko Obara and Nicolas Vandewalle},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1310.3094},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
5 pages, 6 figures and 2 videos for the gallery of fluid motion (The same ones but at different qualities.)