Related papers: Shape transition and propulsive force of an elasti…
We analyze experimentally the shape of a long elastic filament rotating in a viscous liquid. We identify a continuous but sharp transition from a straight to an helical shape, resulting from the competition between viscous stresses and…
We combine experiments with simulations to investigate the fluid-structure interaction of a flexible helical rod rotating in a viscous fluid, under low Reynolds number conditions. Our analysis takes into account the coupling between the…
The dynamics of a rotating elastic filament is investigated using Stokesian simulations. The filament, straight and tilted with respect to its rotation axis for small driving torques, undergoes at a critical torque a strongly discontinuous…
Flexible filaments moving in viscous fluids are ubiquitous in the natural microscopic world. For example, the swimming of bacteria and spermatozoa as well as important physiological functions at organ-level, such as the cilia-induced motion…
To investigate the link between discrete, small-scale and continuous, large scale mechanical properties of a foam, we observe its two-dimensional flow in a channel, around an elliptical obstacle. We measure the drag, lift and torque acting…
A stiff one-armed swimmer in glycerine goes nowhere, but if its arm is elastic, exerting a restorative torque proportional to local curvature, the swimmer can go on its way. Considering this happy consequence and the principles of…
The rotational dynamics of anisotropic particles advected in a turbulent fluid flow are important in many industrial and natural setting. Particle rotations are controlled by small scale properties of turbulence that are nearly universal,…
Our fluid dynamics video shows the response of a layer of viscoelastic fluid to an array of four-roll mills steadily rotating underneath. When the relaxation time of the fluid is sufficiently long, the fluid divides into "cells" with a…
We study forced oscillations of a rod with a body attached to its free end so that the motion of a system is described by two sets of equations, one of integer and the other of the fractional order. To the constitutive equation we associate…
We study three-dimensional deformations of thin inextensible elastic rods with non-vanishing spontaneous curvature and torsion. In addition to the usual description in terms of curvature and torsion which considers only the configuration of…
We study the deformation and transport of elastic fibers in a viscous Hele-Shaw flow with curved streamlines. The variations of the global velocity and orientation of the fiber follow closely those of the local flow velocity. The ratios of…
Conventionally, a microscopic particle that performs a reciprocal stroke cannot move through its environment. This is because at small scales, the response of simple Newtonian fluids is purely viscous and flows are time-reversible. We show…
Motivated by the intriguing motility of spirochetes (helically-shaped bacteria that screw through viscous fluids due to the action of internal periplasmic flagella), we examine the fundamental fluid dynamics of superhelices translating and…
Soft elastic capsules which are driven through a viscous fluid undergo shape deformation coupled to their motion. We introduce an iterative solution scheme which couples hydrodynamic boundary integral methods and elastic shape equations to…
We study elasticity-driven morphological transitions of soft spherical core shell structures in which the core can be treated as an isotropic elastic continuum and the surface or shell as a tensionless liquid layer, whose elastic response…
This paper deals with flow-induced shape transitions of elastic capsules. The state of the art concerning both theory and experiments is briefly reviewed starting with dynamically induced small deformation of initially spherical capsules…
We report experiments on the deformation and transport of an elastic fiber in a viscous cellular flow, namely a lattice of counter-rotative vortices. We show that the fiber can buckle when approaching a stagnation point. By tuning either…
The interaction of surfaces in relative motion in wet environments is dominated by lubrication forces, which play a pivotal role in the dynamics of microscopic systems. Here, we develop motile vesicles that exploit lubrication forces to…
Experiments on the motion of a particle on an inclined rough plane have yielded some surprising results. For example, it was found that the frictional force acting on the ball is viscous, {\it i.e.} proportional to the velocity rather than…
The precise description of the motion of anisotropic particles in a flow rests on the understanding of the force and torque acting on them. Here, we study experimentally small, very elongated particles settling in a fluid at small Reynolds…