Related papers: Leaf roll-up and aquaplaning in strong winds and f…
Birds rely on active high-acceleration morphing and flapping to navigate complex airflows, but they can also maintain stable fixed-wing postures under persistent atmospheric disturbances. Here, we show that avian wings exhibit aerodynamic…
The nature of physical processes can depend substantially on the dimensionality of a system. One such example are buckling instabilities, which arise from the competition between axial compression and bending in elastic filaments. Thus,…
Fiberboids are active filaments trapped at the interface of two phases, able of harnessing energy (and matter) fluxes across the interface in order to produce a rolling-like self-propulsion. We discuss several table-top examples and develop…
We consider the two-dimensional (2D) flow in a flat free-slip surface that bounds a three-dimensional (3D) volume in which the flow is turbulent. The equations of motion for the two-dimensional flow in the surface are neither compressible…
This paper investigates the motion of falling leaves through modeling using papers and the corresponding data collected from more than four thousands experiments. Two series of experiments were designed in order to study the relationship…
Biological membranes are host to proteins and molecules which may form domain-like structures resulting in spatially-varying material properties. Vesicles with such heterogeneous membranes can exhibit intricate shapes at equilibrium and…
Large scale features of a randomly isotropically forced incompressible and unbounded rotating fluid are examined in perturbation theory. At first order in both the random force amplitude and the angular velocity we find two types of…
Riparian vegetation along riverbanks and seagrass along coastlines interact with water currents, significantly altering their flow. To characterise the turbulent fluid motion along the streamwise--edge of a region covered by submerged…
Arctic icebergs, unconstrained sea ice floes, oil slicks, mangrove drifters, lost cargo containers, and other flotsam are known to move at 2-4% of the prevailing wind velocity relative to the water, despite vast differences in the material…
Rather than using wooden sticks to simulate the breakage of trees in high winds as in most research, we employed fresh samples with branches and leaves to certify the crucial role played by the tree crown. By using the blowdown wind tunnel…
This study delves into the aerodynamic behavior of a highly flexible NACA 0012 aerofoil, drawing inspiration from avian feathers to handle a gust. We first examined unsteady flow on a rigid wing both experimentally and numerically and then…
We study diamagnetically levitated foams with widely different liquid fractions. Due to the levitation, drainage is effectively suppressed and the dynamics is driven by the coarsening of the foam bubbles. For dry foams, the bubble size…
Motion in a one-dimensional (1D) microfluidic array is simulated. Water droplets, dragged by flowing oil, are arranged in a single row, and due to their hydrodynamic interactions spacing between these droplets oscillates with a wave-like…
As 2D materials such as graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, and 2D polymers become more prevalent, solution processing and colloidal-state properties are being exploited to create advanced and functional materials. However, our…
Boats float supported only by buoyancy at rest and at very low speeds. As the speed increases, a hull capable of planing makes a sharp transition to a lifting surface while plowing up the bow wave. As the speed increases further the boat…
We report on experimental measurements of the flow behavior of a wet, two-dimensional foam under conditions of slow, steady shear. The initial response of the foam is elastic. Above the yield strain, the foam begins to flow. The flow…
Dynamics of flexible non-Brownian fibers in shear flow at low-Reynolds-number are analyzed numerically for a wide range of the ratios A of the fiber bending force to the viscous drag force. Initially, the fibers are aligned with the flow,…
Flow fields are often represented by a set of static arrows to illustrate scientific vulgarization, documentary film, meteorology, etc. This simple schematic representation lets an observer intuitively interpret the main properties of a…
Saving energy and enhancing performance are secular preoccupations shared by both nature and human beings. In animal locomotion, flapping flyers or swimmers rely on the flexibility of their wings or body to passively increase their…
We study the dynamics of extended rod-like bodies in (or associated with) membranes and films. We demonstrate a striking difference between the mobilities in films and bulk fluids, even when the dissipation is dominated by the fluid stress:…