Related papers: Superwalking droplets
We demonstrate \textit{bendotaxis}, a novel mechanism for droplet self-transport at small scales. A combination of bending and capillarity in a thin channel causes a pressure gradient that, in turn, results in the spontaneous movement of a…
A new type of a levitating droplet clusters composed of often transforming small aggregates of water droplets is described for the first time. Unlike earlier observed droplet clusters controlled by aerodynamic forces, which formed either an…
Phase change under reduced environmental pressures is key to understanding liquid discharge and propulsion processes for aerospace applications. A representative case is the sessile water droplets exposed to high vacuum, which experience…
When we lower the temperature of a liquid, at some point we meet a first order phase transition to the crystal. Yet, under certain conditions it is possible to keep the system in its metastable phase and to avoid crystallization. In this…
The leaves of many plants are superhydrophobic, a property that may have evolved to clean the leaves by encouraging water droplets to bead up and roll off. Superhydrophobic surfaces can also exhibit reduced friction and liquids flowing over…
Splashing occurs when a liquid drop hits a dry solid surface at high velocity. This paper reports experimental studies of how the splash depends on the roughness and the texture of the surfaces as well as the viscosity of the liquid. For…
We reported a phenomenon that when exerting an electric field gradient across a liquid metal/electrolyte interface, a droplet of the same liquid metal can persistently surf on the interface without coalescence. A thin layer of the…
In a recent Letter (Y. Sumino et al., PRL 94, 068301 (2005)) a spontaneous motion of an oil droplet in the surrounding aqueous media along a glass surface was reported. The authors suggested that the self-locomotion is driven by a…
Recently, an active microswimmer was constructed where a micron-sized droplet of bromine water was placed into a surfactant-laden oil phase. Due to a bromination reaction of the surfactant at the interface, the surface tension locally…
The coalescence of droplets plays a crucial role in nature and modern technology. Various experimental and theoretical studies explored droplet dynamics in 3D and on 2D solid or liquid substrates. In this paper, we demonstrate the…
Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the behavior of closely-fitting spherical and ellipsoidal particles moving through a fluid-filled cylinder at nanometer scales. The particle, the cylinder wall and the fluid solvent are all…
The nature of adhesion of droplets to surfaces is a long pending scientific question. With the evolution of complex surfaces, quantification and prediction of these forces become intricate. Nevertheless, understanding these forces is highly…
We demonstrate spontaneous wrinkling as a transient dynamical pattern in thin freely floating smectic liquid-crystalline films. The peculiarity of such films is that, while flowing liquid-like in the film plane, they cannot quickly expand…
We numerically study the dynamics of a passive fluid droplet confined within a microchannel whose walls are covered with a thin layer of active gel. The latter represents a fluid of extensile material modelling, for example, a suspension of…
Superradiance occurs when a collection of atoms exhibits cooperative, spontaneous emission of photons at a rate that exceeds that of its component parts. Here, we reveal a similar phenomenon in a hydrodynamic system consisting of a pair of…
We analyze a model for a walker moving on a ratchet potential. This model is motivated by the properties of transport of motor proteins, like kinesin and myosin. The walker consists of two feet represented as two particles coupled…
The dense flow of air bubbles in a two-dimensional silo (through an aperture D) filled with a liquid is studied experimentally. A particle tracking technique has been used to bring out the main properties of the flow: displacements of the…
Nanoswimmers are ubiquitous in bio- and nano-technology but are extremely challenging to measure due to their minute size and driving forces. A simple method is proposed for detecting the elusive physical features of nanoswimmers by…
When droplets approach a liquid surface, they have a tendency to merge in order to minimize surface energy. However, under certain conditions, they can exhibit a phenomenon called coalescence delay, where they remain separate for tens of…
Understanding the stochastic dynamics of tracer particles in active fluids is important for identifying the physical properties of flow generating objects such as colloids, bacteria or algae. Here, we study both analytically and numerically…