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The motility behavior of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans in polymeric solutions of varying concentrations is systematically investigated in experiments using tracking and velocimetry methods. As the polymer concentration is increased,…
By leveraging their high mobility and small size, insects have been combined with microcontrollers to build up cyborg insects for various practical applications. Unfortunately, all current cyborg insects rely on implanted electrodes to…
We propose and analyze a simple model for the evolution of an immersed, inextensible filament which incorporates linear viscoelastic effects of the surrounding fluid. The model is a closed-form system of equations along the curve only which…
Motivated by recent experiments of motile bacteria crossing liquid-liquid interfaces of isotropic- nematic coexistence (Cheon et al., Soft Matter 20: 7313-7320, 2024), we study the dynamics of prolate microswimmers traversing clean…
An essential element in the web-trap architecture, the capture silk spun by ecribellate orb spiders consists of glue droplets sitting astride a silk filament. Mechanically this thread presents a mixed solid-liquid behavior unknown to date.…
We present our recent study on rough adhesive contacts of viscoelastic materials in steady-state sliding, focusing on the interplay between adhesion and viscoelasticity by means of a novel energy approach. We investigate tribological…
We experimentally study the transient motion of a colloidal particle actively dragged by an optical trap through different viscoelastic fluids (wormlike micelles, polymer solutions, and entangled $\lambda$-phage DNA). We observe that, after…
Microorganism motility often takes place within complex, viscoelastic fluid environments, e.g., sperm in cervicovaginal mucus and bacteria in biofilms. In such complex fluids, strains and stresses generated by the microorganism are stored…
We explore the behaviour of global-in-time weak solutions to a class of bead-spring chain models, with finitely extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE) spring potentials, for dilute polymeric fluids. In the models under consideration the…
Semi-flexible polymers in crowded environments exhibit complex dynamics that play a crucial role in various biological and material design processes. Based on the classic reptation theory, it is generally believed that semiflexible polymers…
Epithelial tissues act as barriers and, therefore, must repair themselves, respond to environmental changes and grow without compromising their integrity. Consequently, they exhibit complex viscoelastic rheological behavior where…
Many cells exploit the bending or rotation of flagellar filaments in order to self-propel in viscous fluids. While appropriate theoretical modelling is available to capture flagella locomotion in simple, Newtonian fluids, formidable…
The retraction of an impacting droplet on a non-wetting substrate is often associated with the formation of a Worthington jet, which is fed by the retracting liquid. A non-Newtonian rheology of the liquid is known to affect the retraction…
Pipelines, vital for fluid transport, pose an important yet challenging inspection task, particularly in small, flexible biological systems, that robots have yet to master. In this study, we explored the development of an innovative robot…
We employ a matrix-based solver for the linear rheology of fluid-immersed disordered spring networks to reveal four distinct dynamic response regimes. One regime - completely absent in the known vacuum response - exhibits coupled fluid flow…
In this paper, we study a nonlinear interaction problem between compressible viscous fluids and plates. For this problem, we introduce relative entropy and relative energy inequality for the finite energy weak solutions (FEWS). First, we…
Biological materials achieve directional reinforcement with oriented assemblies of anisotropic building blocks. One such example is the nanocomposite structure of keratinized epithelium on the toe pad of tree frogs, in which hexagonal…
We examine the fundamental fluid dynamical mechanisms dictating the generation of bioaerosols in the human trachea during intense respiratory events such as coughing and sneezing, with an emphasis on the role played by the mucosalivary…
Among all animals, mosquitoes are responsible for the most deaths worldwide. Interestingly, not all types of mosquitoes spread diseases, but rather, a select few alone are competent enough to do so. In the case of any disease outbreak, an…
Insects, pick-and-place manufacturing, engineered adhesives, and soft robots employ soft materials to stick to surfaces even in the presence of roughness. Experiments show that the force required for making contact is lower than for…