Related papers: Numerical simulation of artificial microswimmers d…
Clogging of microchannels due to particle adhesion on the walls is a serious problem in many industrial processes. As such, the service life of microfluidic systems is determined by their ability to maintain flow without interruption over a…
A central challenge for organisms during development is determining a means to efficiently export toxic molecules from inside the developing embryo. For aquatic microorganisms, the strategies employed should be robust with respect to the…
We theoretically investigate the effect of random fluctuations on the motion of elongated microswimmers near hydrodynamic transport barriers in externally-driven fluid flows. Focusing on the two-dimensional hyperbolic flow, we consider the…
We investigate the dynamics of an insoluble surfactant on the surface of a thin viscous fluid spreading inward to fill a surfactant-free region. During the initial stages of surfactant self-healing, Marangoni forces drive an axisymmetric…
When a drop of a volatile liquid is deposited on a uniformly heated wettable, thermally conducting substrate, one expects to see it spread into a thin film and evaporate. Contrary to this intuition, due to thermal Marangoni contraction the…
A droplet falling toward a solid surface displaces the surrounding air until it encounters a defect, and contact nucleates. On atomically smooth surfaces devoid of defects, contact can be delayed until the droplet rebounds; however, above a…
Swimming cells and microorganisms must often move though complex fluids that contain an immersed microstructure such as polymer molecules, or filaments. In many important biological processes, such as mammalian reproduction and bacterial…
We report on dynamic properties of a simple model microswimmer composed of three spheres and propelling itself in a viscous fluid by spinning motion of the spheres under zero net torque constraint. At a fixed temperature and increasing the…
When an evaporating water droplet is deposited on a thermally conductive substrate, the minimum temperature will be at the apex due to evaporative cooling. Consequently, density and surface tension gradients emerge within the droplet and at…
We derive from first principles a three-dimensional theory of self-propelled particle swarming in a viscous fluid environment. Our model predicts emergent collective behavior that depends critically on fluid opacity, mechanism of…
Despite their importance in many biological, ecological and physical processes, microorganismal fluid flows under tight confinement have not been investigated experimentally. Strong screening of Stokelets in this geometry suggests that the…
Self-propelled microparticles create flow fields that determine how they interact with surfaces, external flows, and each other. These flow fields fall into distinct classes--pushers, pullers, and neutral swimmers--each exhibiting…
Systems of motile microorganisms exhibit a multitude of collective phenomena, including motility-induced phase separation and turbulence. Sensing of the environment and adaptation of movement plays an essential role in the emergent…
After colliding with a surface, microswimmers reside there during the detention time. They accumulate and may form complex structures such as biofilms. We introduce a general framework to calculate the distribution of detention times using…
The dissolution or growth of a droplet in a host liquid is an important part for processes like chemical extraction, chromatography or emulsification. In this work we look at the dissolution of a pair of vertically aligned droplets immersed…
One of the principal mechanisms by which surfaces and interfaces affect microbial life is by perturbing the hydrodynamic flows generated by swimming. By summing a recursive series of image systems we derive a numerically tractable…
Active suspensions encompass a wide range of complex fluids containing microscale energy-injecting particles, such as cells, bacteria or artificially powered active colloids. Because they are intrinsically non-equilibrium, active…
Thermocapillary convection is particularly effective for the control of thin liquid film topography or for the actuation of microparticles at the liquid-air interface. Experiments with water are challenging, however, as its interface is…
This work focuses on the dynamics of a train of unconfined bubbles flowing in microchan- nels. We investigate the transverse position of a train of bubbles, its velocity and the associated pressure drop when flowing in a microchannel…
Experimental observations of high-energy surface melting processes, such as laser welding, have revealed unsteady, often violent, motion of the free surface of the melt pool. Surprisingly, no similar observations have been reported in…