Related papers: Building the next pyramid
We have devised an original laboratory experiment where we investigate the frictional behaviour of a single crystal salt slider over a large number of deformation cycles. Because of its physical properties, salt, a surrogate for natural…
The capability of effectively moving on complex terrains such as sand and gravel can empower our robots to robustly operate in outdoor environments, and assist with critical tasks such as environment monitoring, search-and-rescue, and…
By analyzing the real space nonequilibrium dynamics of polymers, we elucidate the physics of driven translocation and propose its dynamical scaling scenario analogous to that in the surface growth phenomena. We provide a detailed account of…
We study the behavior of self-propelled nano- and micro-rods in three dimensions, confined between two parallel walls, by simulations and scaling arguments. Our simulations include thermal fluctuations and hydrodynamic interactions, which…
Following the recent insight in the material structure of comets, protoplanetesimals are assumed to have low densities and to be highly porous agglomerates. It is still unclear if planetesimals can be formed from these objects by…
We investigate the outcome of collisions in very different mass regimes, but an otherwise identical parameter setup, comprising the impact velocity ($v/v_\mathrm{esc}$), impact angle, mass ratio, and initial composition, w.r.t. simple…
Interests in exploration of new energy resources are increasing due to the exhaustion of existing resources. To explore new energy sources, various studies have been conducted to improve the drilling performance of drilling equipment for…
Contacts between particles in dense, sheared suspensions are believed to underpin much of their rheology. Roughness and adhesion are known to constrain the relative motion of particles, and thus globally affect the shear response, but an…
Fluid droplets can be induced to move over rigid or flexible surfaces under external or body forces. We describe the effect of variations in material properties of a flexible substrate as a mechanism for motion. In this paper, we consider a…
It is possible to build free-standing, load-bearing structures using only rocks and loops of elastic material. We investigate how these structures emerge, and find that the necessary maximum loop spacing (the critical spacing) is a function…
Rigid bodies, made of smaller composite beads, are commonly used to simulate anisotropic particles with molecular dynamics or Monte Carlo methods. To accurately represent the particle shape and to obtain smooth and realistic effective pair…
We numerically study a simple sliding system: a rigid mass pulled by a spring with a strong in-plane stiffness anisotropy and a small misalignment angle. Simulations show that the apparent stick phase appearing in this system is in reality…
A 1 cm coin vibrational motor fixed to the center of a 4 cm square foam platform moves rapidly across granular media (poppy seeds, millet, corn meal) at a speed of up to 30 cm/s, or about 5 body lengths/s. Fast speeds are achieved with…
This work is focused on the development of a dynamic criterion for the arching and bridging of spherical particles in a 3D suspension flow through a channel with plane walls. Elasticity of the particles and the channel walls are taken into…
We present design and implementation of a chain of particles that can be programmed to fold the chain into a given curve. The particles guide an external force to fold, therefore the particles are simple and amenable for miniaturization. A…
We study the spontaneous folding of a 2D template of microscopic panels into a 3D pyramid, driven by thermal fluctuations. Combining numerical simulations and analytical calculations, we find that the total folding time is a non-monotonic…
The formation of planetesimals is often accredited to collisional sticking of dust grains. The exact process is unknown, as collisions between larger aggregates tend to lead to fragmentation or bouncing rather than sticking. Recent…
A new type of water droplet transportation on microstructured hydrophobic surface is proposed and investigated experimentally and theoretically - water droplet could be driven by scale effect which is different from the traditional methods.…
Granular surfaces subjected to forces due to rolling wheels develop ripples above a critical speed. The resulting pattern, known as "washboard" or "corrugated" road, is common on dry, unpaved roads. We investigated this phenomenon…
Most major planetary bodies in the solar system rotate in the same direction as their orbital motion: their spin is prograde. Theoretical studies to explain the direction as well as the magnitude of the spin vector have had mixed success.…