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We study the dispersion of bubble swarms rising in initially quiescent water using 3D Lagrangian tracking of deformable bubbles and tracer particles in an octagonal bubble column. First, we compare the dispersion inside bubble swarms with…
The velocity relaxation of an impulsively forced spherical particle in a fluid confined by two parallel plane walls is studied using a direct numerical simulation approach. During the relaxation process, the momentum of the particle is…
Wall-based spanwise forcing has been experimentally used with success by Auteri et al. (Phys. Fluids vol. 22, 2010, 115103) to obtain large reductions of turbulent skin-friction drag and considerable energy savings in a pipe flow. The…
Snapping mechanisms are investigated for an elastic strip with ends imposed to move and rotate in time. Attacking the problem analytically via Euler's elastica and the second variation of the total potential energy, the number of stable…
Spiral jets are impulsive plasma ejections that typically show an apparent rotation motion. Their generation, however, is still nont understood thoroughly. Based on a high-resolution vector magnetogram form the Polarimetric and Helioseismic…
We discuss the dynamics of a generalized three-sphere microswimmer in which the spheres are connected by two elastic springs. The natural length of each spring is assumed to undergo a prescribed cyclic change. We analytically obtain the…
Recent research has shown that motile cells can adapt their mode of propulsion depending on the environment in which they find themselves. One mode is swimming by blebbing or other shape changes, and in this paper we analyze a class of…
We compare simulations and experiments of single positive streamer discharges in air at 100 mbar, aiming towards model validation. Experimentally, streamers are generated in a plate-plate geometry with a protruding needle. We are able to…
Viscoelastic fluids impact the locomotion of swimming microorganisms and can be harnessed to devise new types of self-propelling devices. Here we report on experiments demonstrating the use of normal stress differences for propulsion. Rigid…
Rotating the clamped ends of a buckled elastica induces a snap-through instability. Predicting the limit point and determining the equilibria at the start and end of the snap are routine computations in the quasi-static setting. The…
We consider the dynamics of micro-sized, asymmetrically-coated thermoresponsive hydrogel ribbons (microgels) under periodic heating and cooling in the confined space between two planar surfaces. As the result of the temperature changes, the…
We study the behavior of threads and polymers in a turbulent flow. These objects have finite spatial extension, so the flow along them differs slightly. The corresponding drag forces produce a finite average stretching and the thread is…
Liquid drops slide more slowly over soft, deformable substrates than over rigid solids. This phenomenon can be attributed to the viscoelastic dissipation induced by the moving wetting ridge, which inhibits a rapid motion, and is called…
Experimental results of towing a cylinder through a dense suspension of cornstarch and sucrose-water are presented. Focus is placed on the jamming fronts that exist in such systems. The literature has concentrated on the propagation of the…
The nonlinear mechanics of a flexible elastic rod constrained at its edges by a pair of sliding sleeves is analyzed. The planar equilibrium configurations of this variable-length elastica are found to have shape defined only by the…
The gaits of undulating animals arise from a complex interaction of their central nervous system, muscle, connective tissue, bone, and environment. As a simplifying assumption, many previous studies have often assumed that sufficient…
This paper discusses the elastic behavior of a single polyelectrolyte chain. A simple scaling analysis as in self avoiding walk chains are not possible, because three interplaying relevant length scales are involved, i.e., the Debye…
Statistical mechanics is an important tool for understanding polymer electroelasticity because the elasticity of polymers is primarily due to entropy. However, a common approach for the statistical mechanics of polymer chains, the Gaussian…
A self-consistent-field theory is given for the electronic collective modes of a chain containing a finite number, $N$, of Coulomb-coupled spherical two-dimensional electron gases (S2DE's) arranged with their centers along a straight line,…
The process of self-morphing in curved surfaces found in nature, such as with the growth of flowers and leaves, has generated interest in the study of self-morphing bilayers, which has been used in many soft robots or switchers. However,…