Related papers: Sub-microscopic modulation of mechanical propertie…
Flapping-wing insects, birds, and robots are thought to offset the high power cost of oscillatory wing motion by using elastic elements for energy storage and return. Insects possess highly resilient elastic regions in their flight anatomy…
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a suitable tool to perform tribological characterization of materials down to the nanometer scale. An important aspect in nanofriction measurements of corrugated samples is the local tilt of the surface,…
Inexpensive, portable lab-on-a-chip devices would revolutionize fields like environmental monitoring and global health, but current microfluidic chips are tethered to extensive off-chip hardware. Insects, however, are self-contained and…
Wing flexibility plays an essential role in the aerodynamic performance of insects due to the considerable deformation of their wings during flight under the impact of inertial and aerodynamic forces. These forces come from the complex wing…
There is a huge interest in developing super-repellent surfaces for anti-fouling and heat transfer applications. To characterize the wetting properties of such surfaces, the most common approach is to place a millimetric-sized droplet and…
In spite of the crucial role it is believed to play in nature, fluorescence in natural organisms remains under-investigated from optical, chemical and biological perspectives. One example is the transparent wings of insects from the order…
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…
We present the result of a systematic study of the tribological properties of industrial Polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE)-based coatings carried out with an atomic force microscope. A new characterization protocol allowed the reliable and…
Measurements with an atomic force microscope (AFM) offer a direct way to probe elastic properties of lipid bilayer membranes locally: provided the underlying stress-strain relation is known, material parameters such as surface tension or…
The reconfiguration of soft, deformable particles upon adsorption at the interface between two fluids underpins many aspects of their dynamics and interactions, ultimately controlling the macroscopic properties of particle monolayers of…
Modelling of single cellulose fibres is usually performed by assuming homogenous properties, such as strength and Young s modulus, for the whole fibre. Additionally, the inhomogeneity in size and swelling behaviour along the fibre is often…
A MEMS based tribometer has been developed that can be read out with nanometer and nano-Newton resolution, approaching the resolution and sensitivity of a friction force microscope (FFM). It can be used to study friction of MEMS device…
The secret to the spectacular flight capabilities of flapping insects lies in their wings, which are often approximated as flat, rigid plates. Real wings are however delicate structures, composed of veins and membranes, and can undergo…
Measuring the mechanical response of liquid interfaces without direct contact remains a major experimental challenge, particularly in liquid-liquid systems where no solid reference exists. Here, we develop a frequency-modulation atomic…
Tiny flying insects of body lengths under 2 mm use the `clap-and-fling' mechanism with bristled wings for lift augmentation and drag reduction at chord-based Reynolds number ($Re$) on $\mathcal{O}$(10). We examine wing-wing interaction of…
The flexibility of biological propulsors such as wings and fins is believed to contribute to the higher performance of flying and swimming animals compared with their engineered peers. Flexibility seems to follow a universal design rule…
We present a detailed study of the interface morphology of an electro-deposited (ED) Ni/Cu bilayer film by using off-specular (diffuse) neutron reflectivity technique and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The Ni/Cu bilayer has been…
A method of modifying the roughness of soda-lime glass spheres is presented, with the purpose of tuning inter-particle friction. The effect of chemical etching on the surface topography and the bulk frictional properties of grains is…
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have promised to revolutionize the way we live and work, and one of particularly promising areas for AI is image analysis. Nevertheless, many current AI applications focus on post-processing…
We describe the results of atomic-level stick-slip friction measurements performed on chemically-modified graphite, using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Through detailed molecular dynamics simulations, coarse-grained simulations, and…