Related papers: Validating pore-scale models of drying using micro…
A rectangular grid formed by liquid filaments on a partially wetting substrate evolves in a series of breakups leading to arrays of drops with different shapes distributed in a rather regular bidimensional pattern. Our study is focused on…
As a typical multiphase fluid flow process, drainage in porous media is of fundamental interest in nature and industrial applications. During drainage processes in unsaturated soils and porous media in general, saturated clusters, in which…
The macroscopic phenomenon of filtration is the separation between suspended and liquid phases and it takes place in natural environments (e.g. groundwater, soil, hyporheic zone) and industrial systems (e.g. filtration plants,…
Guided by extensive numerical simulations, we propose a microfluidic device that can sort elastic capsules by their deformability. The device consists of a duct embedded with a semi-cylindrical obstacle, and a diffuser which further…
The drying dynamics in three dimensional porous media are studied with confocal microscopy. We observe abrupt air invasions in size from single particle to hundreds of particles. We show that these result from the strong flow from menisci…
Although complex, hierarchical nanoscale geometries with tailored degrees of disorder are commonly found in biological systems, few simple self-assembly routes to fabricating synthetic analogues have been identified. We present two…
Microfluidics, the study of fluids in microscopic channels, has led to important advances in fields as diverse as microelectronics, biotechnology and chemistry. Microfluidic research is primarily based on the use of microfluidic chips,…
Research on human skin anatomy reveals its complex multi-scale, multi-phase nature, with up to 70% of its composition being bounded and free water. Fluid movement plays a key role in the skin's mechanical and biological responses,…
Flow through porous, elastically deforming media is present in a variety of natural contexts ranging from large-scale geophysics to cellular biology. In the case of incompressible constituents, the porefluid pressure acts as a Lagrange…
Scalable technologies for the production of bio-compatible complex microfibers with controllable size and composition at competitively high throughput are urgently needed in order to meet the growing demand for such microstructures in…
In submerged sandy slopes, soil is frequently eroded as a combination of two main mechanisms: breaching, which refers to the retrogressive failure of a steep slope forming a turbidity current, and, instantaneous sliding wedges, known as…
Immiscible fluid displacement in porous media is fundamental for many environmental processes, including infiltration of water in soils, groundwater remediation, enhanced recovery of hydrocarbons and carbon geosequestration. Microstructural…
We use dedicated microfluidic devices to expose soft hydrogel particles to a rapid change in the externally applied osmotic pressure and observe a non-monotonic response: After an initial rapid compression the particle slowly reswells to…
We study a reaction-diffusion model posed on two distinct spatial scales that accounts for diffusion, aggregation, fragmentation, and deposition of populations of colloidal particles within a porous material. In this model, the macroscopic…
Polymer microgels exhibit intriguing macroscopic flow properties arising from their unique microscopic structure. Microgel colloids usually comprise a crosslinked polymer network with a radially decaying density profile, resulting in a…
A method of modelling the three-dimensional microstructure of random isotropic two-phase materials is proposed. The information required to implement the technique can be obtained from two-dimensional images of the microstructure. The…
During drying of colloidal suspensions, colloidal particles can form concentrated particle layers beneath the receding free surface. The drying rate can gradually decrease with the growth of the particle layers. We construct a model to…
Soft particles display highly versatile properties with respect to hard colloids, even more so at fluid-fluid interfaces. In particular, microgels, consisting of a cross-linked polymer network, are able to deform and flatten upon adsorption…
Charged colloidal dispersions make up the basis of a broad range of industrial and commercial products, from paints to coatings and additives in cosmetics. During drying, an initially liquid dispersion of such particles is slowly…
We study bacterial diffusion in disordered porous media. Interactions with obstacles, at unknown locations, make this problem challenging. We approach it by abstracting the environment to cell states with memoryless transitions. With this,…