Related papers: Tractionless Self-Propulsion of Active Drops

Numerous cell-types have shown a remarkable ability to detect and move along gradients in stiffness of an underlying substrate -- a process known as durotaxis. The mechanisms underlying durotaxis are still unresolved, but generally believed…

We present results of molecular dynamics (MD) calculations of the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids containing self-propelled nanoparticles. The translational and rotational dynamics observed in the simulations follow the…

Engineering synthetic materials that mimic the remarkable complexity of living organisms is a fundamental challenge in science and technology. We study the spatiotemporal patterns that emerge when an active nematicfilm of microtubules and…

Cell monolayers are a central model system to tissue biophysics. In vivo, epithelial tissues are curved on the scale of microns, and curvature's role in the onset of spontaneous tissue flows is still not well-understood. Here, we present a…

Propulsion of otherwise passive objects is achieved by mechanisms of active driving. We concentrate on cases in which the direction of active drive is subject to spontaneous symmetry breaking. In our case, this direction will be maintained,…

Experiments indicate that microdroplets undergoing micellar solubilization in the bulk of surfactant solution may excite Marangoni flows and self-propel spontaneously. Surprisingly, self-propulsion emerges even when the critical micelle…

We study the spreading dynamics of a sphere-shaped elastic non-Newtonian liquid drop on a spherical substrate in the capillary driven regime. We use the simplified Phan Thien Tanner model to represent the rheology of the elastic…

Liquid shells (e.g. double emulsions, vesicles etc.) are susceptible to interfacial instability and rupturing when driven out of mechanical equilibrium. This poses a significant challenge for the design of liquid shell based micro-machines,…

We study the motion of a compressible perfect liquid body in vacuum. This can be thought of as a model for the motion of the ocean or a star. The free surface moves with the velocity of the liquid and the pressure vanishes on the free…

We study both experimentally and theoretically the descending motion due to gravity of a fluid drop surrounded by another immiscible fluid in a confined space between two parallel plates, i.e., in the Hele-Shaw cell. As a result, we show a…

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…

We perform analytical and numerical analyses of the propulsion of a rigid body in a viscous fluid subjected to a periodic force with zero average over a period. This general formulation specifically addresses the significant case, where…

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…

Locomotion is essential for living cells. It enables bacteria and algae to explore space for food, cancer to spread, and immune system to fight infections. Motile cells display trajectories of intriguing complexity, from regular (e.g.…

When a liquid drop falls on a solid substrate, the air layer in between them delays the occurrence of liquid--solid contact. For impacts on smooth substrates, the air film can even prevent wetting, allowing the drop to bounce off with…

Droplet motion on surfaces influences phenomena as diverse as microfluidic liquid handling, printing technology and micro-organism migration. Typically, droplet motion is achieved by inducing energy gradients on a substrate or flow on the…

Transport at small scales is classically understood within an equilibrium framework, where dispersion theory successfully describes shear-enhanced diffusion for passive particles in the continuum limit. However, as most bacteria can move on…

We develop a formal analogy between configurational stresses in two distinct physical systems, and study the flows that they induce when the configurations of interest include topological de- fects. The two systems in question are…

Directed, long-range and self-propelled transport of droplets on solid surfaces, especially on water repellent surfaces, is crucial for many applications from water harvesting to bio-analytical devices. One appealing strategy to achieve the…

Colloidal particles hold promise for mobilizing and removing trapped immiscible fluids from porous media, with implications for key energy and water applications. Most studies focus on accomplishing this goal using particles that can…