Related papers: Ballooning in Spiders using Multiple Silk Threads
We study the effects of a controlled gas flow on the dynamics of electrified jets in the electrospinning process. The main idea is to model the air drag effects of the gas flow by using a non-linear Langevin-like approach. The model is…
Microswimmers, and among them aspirant microrobots, generally have to cope with flows where viscous forces are dominant, characterized by a low Reynolds number ($Re$). This implies constraints on the possible sequences of body motion, which…
Linyphiid spiders have evolved the ability to disperse long distances by a process known as ballooning. It has been hypothesized that ballooning may allow populations to persist in the highly disturbed agricultural areas that the spiders…
It is by now well understood that large sprite discharges at the low air densities of the mesosphere are physically similar to small streamer discharges in air at standard temperature and pressure. This similarity is based on Townsend…
When humidified at different moisture conditions, restrained spider silk fibers can exhibit a very high supercontraction phenomenon. The hydration water molecules induce a Hydrogen-bonds disruption process that, due to entropic effects,…
When animal groups move coherently in the form of a flock, their trajectories are not all parallel, the individuals exchange their position in the group. In this Letter we introduce a measure of this mixing dynamics, which we quantify as…
We use numerical simulations to study the dynamics of surface discharges, which are common in high-voltage engineering. We simulate positive streamer discharges that propagate towards a dielectric surface, attach to it, and then propagate…
We observed the conformation of threads that free released from different altitudes. We also explore the effect of wetting liquid on the conformation developed. When released from an altitude, the thread conformation changes when free…
It has been known for more than 300 years that the shape of an inelastic hanging cable, chain, or rope of uniform linear mass density is the graph of the hyperbolic cosine, up to scaling and shifting coordinates. But given two points at…
In biological systems, microswimmers often propel themselves through complex media. However, many aspects of swimming mechanisms in non-Newtonian fluids remain unclear. This study considers the propulsion of two types of single spherical…
Insects use flight muscles attached at the base of the wings to produce impressive wing flapping frequencies. The maximum power output of these flight muscles is insufficient to maintain such wing oscillations unless there is good elastic…
A slender object undergoing an axial compression will buckle to alleviate the stress. Typically the morphology of the deformed object depends on the bending stiffness for solids, or the viscoelastic properties for liquid threads. We study a…
We describe experiments and simulations demonstrating the propulsion of a neutrally-buoyant swimmer that consists of a pair of spheres attached by a spring, immersed in a vibrating fluid. The vibration of the fluid induces relative motion…
We deduce a microstructure inspired model for humidity and temperature effects on the mechanical response of spider silks, modelled as a composite material with a hard crystalline and a soft amorphous region. Water molecules decrease the…
The present work is essentially concerned with the development of statistical theory for the low temperature dislocation glide in concentrated solid solutions where atom-sized obstacles impede plastic flow. In connection with such a…
Spider silk is a remarkable example of bio-material with superior mechanical characteristics. Its multilevel structural organization of dragline and viscid silk leads to unusual and tunable properties, extensively studied from a…
We introduce a distinctive feature of spin-polarized transport, the Spin Coulomb Drag: there is an intrinsic source of friction for spin currents due to the Coulomb interaction between spin ``up'' and spin ``down'' electrons. We calculate…
We have developed a toy model of flying snake's glide [J.J. Socha, Nature vol. 418 (2002) 603.] by modifying a model for a falling paper. We have found that asymmetric oscillation is a key about why snake can glide. Further investigation…
On perfectly vertical surfaces, rolling is conventionally deemed impossible without external torque. While various species like geckos and spiders exhibit vertical locomotion, they cannot achieve rolling; instead, they fall. In this study,…
An axisymmetric squirmer in a Bingham viscoplastic fluid is studied numerically to determine the effect of a yield stress environment on locomotion. The nonlinearity of the governing equations necessitates numerical methods, which is…