Interface dynamics under nonequilibrium conditions: From a self-propelled droplet to dynamic pattern evolution

In this article, we describe the instability of a contact line under nonequilibrium conditions mainly based on the results of our recent studies. Two experimental examples are presented: the self-propelled motion of a liquid droplet and spontaneous dynamic pattern formation. For the self-propelled motion of a droplet, we introduce an experiment in which a droplet of aniline sitting on an aqueous layer moves spontaneously at an air-water interface. The spontaneous symmetry breaking of Marangoni-driven spreading causes regular motion. In a circular Petri dish, the droplet exhibits either beeline motion or circular motion. On the other hand, we show the emergence of a dynamic labyrinthine pattern caused by dewetting of a metastable thin film from the air-water interface. The contact line between the organic phase and the aqueous phase forms a unique spatio-temporal pattern characterized as a dynamic labyrinth. Motion of the contact line is controlled by diffusion processes. We propose a theoretical model to interpret essential aspects of the observed dynamic behavior.     

Dynamics of a self-propelled particle under different driving modes in a channel flow

In this paper, a model that combines the lattice Boltzmann method with the singularity distribution method is proposed to simulate a self-propelled particle swimming(exhibiting translation and rotation) in a channel flow. The results show that the velocity distribution for a self-propelled particle swimming deviates from a Maxwellian distribution and exhibits highvelocity tails. The influence of an eccentric potential doublet on the translation velocity of the particle is significant. The velocity decay process can be described using a double exponential model form. No large differences in the velocity distribution were observed for different translation Reynolds numbers, rotation Reynolds numbers, or regular intervals.     

On the mechanism of noncoalescence in a droplet cluster

Experimental data are presented, from which it follows that the mechanism of noncoalescence in a cluster of drops is not attributable to the electrostatic charging and the presence of surfactants. The Stokes force acting upon drops of the cluster in a convective plume amounts to a fraction of a percent of the drop weight. New effects are described, which provide evidence for a fast proper rotation of drops in the cluster. Estimates show that this rotation is explained in terms of the hypothesis of a thermocapillary nature of the noncoalescence phenomenon.     

Cavitation inception on microparticles: a self-propelled particle accelerator

Corrugated, hydrophilic particles with diameters between 30 and 150 microm are found to cause cavitation inception at their surfaces when they are exposed to a short, intensive tensile stress wave. The growing cavity accelerates the particle into translatory motion until the tensile stress decreases, and subsequently the particle separates from the cavity. The cavity growth and particle detachment are modeled by considering the momentum of the particle and the displaced liquid. The analysis suggests that all particles which cause cavitation are accelerated into translatory motion, and separate from the cavities they themselves nucleate. Thus, in the research of cavitation nuclei the link is established between developed cavitation bubbles and their origin.     

固体表面液滴铺展与润湿接触线的移动分析

液滴在固体表面上的铺展行为与润湿特性对许多工业生产过程的研究具有重要意义.根据液滴在光滑表面上的受力情况,建立了液滴平壁铺展的动力学模型.应用润滑近似方法和二维Navier-Stokes方程,建立了液滴沿理想表面铺展的动量和连续性方程.根据建立的方程,应用数值解法求解并详细分析了液滴在铺展过程中膜厚、接触线铺展半径以及铺展速度随时间的变化关系.研究结果表明:液滴的铺展过程可分为扩展和收缩两个阶段,铺展过程伴随着表面能、动能以及各种势能的相互转化,液滴最终的铺展半径大小由固体基面固有的润湿特性所决定;液滴在铺展过程中出现的"坍塌效应"与弯曲液面处的Laplace压力差有关;铺展半径随时间变化的标定律近似满足"1/7"次方标度律.     

Crystallization in a dense suspension of self-propelled particles

Using Brownian dynamics computer simulations, we show that a two-dimensional suspension of self-propelled ("active") colloidal particles crystallizes at sufficiently high densities. Compared to the equilibrium freezing of passive particles, the freezing density is both significantly shifted and depends on the structural or dynamical criterion employed. In nonequilibrium the transition is accompanied by pronounced structural heterogeneities. This leads to a transition region between liquid and solid in which the suspension is globally ordered but unordered liquidlike "bubbles" still persist.     

Entropic stochastic resonance of a self-propelled Janus particle

Entropic stochastic resonance is investigated when a self-propelled Janus particle moves in a double-cavity container. Numerical simulation results indicate the entropic stochastic resonance can survive even if there is no symmetry breaking in any direction. This is the essential distinction between the property of a self-propelled Janus particle and that of a passive Brownian particle, for the symmetry breaking is necessary for the entropic stochastic resonance of a passive Brownian particle. With the rotational noise intensity growing at small fixed noise intensity of translational motion, the signal power amplification increases monotonically towards saturation which also can be regarded as a kind of stochastic resonance effect. Besides, the increase in the natural frequency of the periodic driving depresses the degree of the stochastic resonance, whereas the rise in its amplitude enhances and then suppresses the behavior.     

Experimental studies on droplet characteristics in a microfluidic flow focusing droplet generator: effect of continuous phase on droplet encapsulation

The European Physical Journal E - Interaction of cytoskeletal filaments, motor proteins, and crosslinking proteins drives important cellular processes such as cell division and cell movement....     

Binary collision of a burning droplet and a non-burning droplet of xylene: Outcome regimes and flame dynamics

The binary collisions of a burning droplet and a non-burning droplet of xylene are experimentally investigated. The experimental parameters span an extensive range of Weber number and impact parameter, covering the collision outcome regimes of coalescence, reflexive separation, and stretching separation. A high-speed camera captures the temporal details of the collision process, involving flame spread, visible radiation, and flame distributions around droplets. For reflexive separation and stretching separation, the flame from the droplet spreads to the ligament, surrounding it during the interaction process, and then spreads around separated droplets and satellite droplets. Highly-interactive flames are formed in-between the droplets, with very sooty flames generated for most collisions. For the coalescence case, a swirling flame forms around the rotating coalesced droplet. For similar Weber numbers, visible flame radiation is compared for different collision regimes. The visible flame radiation changes more significantly for the reflexive and stretching separation cases than it does for the coalescence case. The change of the averaged visible flame radiation for reflexive separation and stretching separation is more than two times higher than that for coalescence. The map of three different collision regimes is plotted in the Weber number versus impact parameter domain and compared with available theoretical model predictions. Although the different outcomes of collision with the presence of flame can be well predicted by the model, using fluid properties determined by the averaged properties of the two droplets, the dynamics of the detailed processes involved in the collisions are very interesting and have strong implications on overall combustion behavior that go well beyond the mapped regimes.     

Dynamics of a deformable self-propelled particle under external forcing

We investigate dynamics of a deformable self-propelled particle under external fields in two dimensions based on the time-evolution equations for the center of mass and a tensor variable characterizing deformations. We consider two kinds of external force. One is a gravitational force which enters additively in the time-evolution equation for the center of mass. The other is an electric force supposing that a dipole moment is induced in the particle. This force is added to the equation for the deformation tensor. It is shown that a rich variety of dynamics appears by changing the strength of the forces and the migration velocity of a self-propelled particle. A theoretical analysis is carried out to clarify the dynamics and the bifurcations.     

On the role of capillary waves in the mechanism of coalescence of a droplet cluster

Packets of capillary waves on the surface of a horizontal water layer generated at coalescence with a layer of microdroplets (with a characteristic diameter of 50–100 μm) of the dissipative structure “droplet cluster” have been detected by high-speed video recording and the schlieren method. The shortest experimentally observed waves have a length of about 130 μm and their phase velocity exceeds 1.8 m/s. It has been found that the coalescence of a single drop initiates a self-sustained wave process, which induces the coalescence of hundreds of droplets in a time shorter than 1 ms, which form a cluster.     

GaAs表面不同运动状态H2SO4-H2O2-H2O液滴的红外辐射特性

利用红外热像实时监测系统,研究了GaAs表面不同运动状态(包括静止状态、缓慢运动状态、快速运动状态)下H₂SO₄-H₂O₂-H₂O液滴的红外辐射特性,并对实验结果和研究价值进行分析.主要的实验结论包括：静止状态时,反应生成热在液滴内部向上对流,液滴顶部为红外辐射灰度峰值,并向液滴边缘陡降,同时,生成热将沿GaAs基片向周边扩散;缓慢运动时,液滴后存在类似于“彗尾”的热残留现象,表现为温度降低、灰度峰值与液滴运动同向的“双重运动特性”,灰度峰值位移曲线与液滴实际位移存在差异,温度最高点有可能位于“慧尾”中;快速运动时,液滴未与GaAs反应便脱离基片,表现为“液膜轨迹”现象,辐射灰度从液膜边缘到液膜中心为半椭圆面的平缓过渡,并分析了轨迹中心灰度值的分布与变化特性.液滴运动热行为红外监测方法的提出,在推动液滴自身研究的同时,也将进一步推动红外技术与材料科学、化学科学等交叉学科的融合. 关键词： 红外热像 实时监测 液滴 砷化镓     

Speedup of self-propelled helical swimmers in a long cylindrical pipe

Pipe-like confinements are ubiquitously encountered by microswimmers.Here we systematically study the ratio of the speeds of a force-and torque-free microswimmer swimming in the center of a cylindrical pipe to its speed in an unbounded fluid(speed ratio).Inspired by E.coli,the model swimmer consists of a cylindrical head and a double-helical tail connected to the head by a rotating virtual motor.The numerical simulation shows that depending on swimmer geometry,confinements can enhance or hinder the swimming speed,which is verified by Reynolds number matched experiments.We further developed a reduced model.The model shows that the swimmer with a moderately long,slender head and a moderately long tail experiences the greatest speed enhancement,whereas the theoretical speed ratio has no upper limit.The properties of the virtual motor also affect the speed ratio,namely,the constant-frequency motor generates a greater speed ratio compared to the constant-torque motor.     

The expansion of the universe as a driving mechanism for the evolution of correlations

Viewed in the average comoving frame, a collection of galaxies evolves under the influence of time-dependent forces, and hence a time-dependent hamiltonian. This time dependence guarantees that, even if the universe were always spatially homogeneous and were completely free of correlations at some initial time, it would eventually develop large-amplitude correlations.     

Evidence of a new pulse-shortening mechanism in a load-limited MILO

Experimental evidence shows that the electron flow in a load-limited magnetically insulated transmission line oscillator (MILO) is only partially magnetically insulated at the launch point, yet fully insulated along the downstream slow-wave structure (SWS). This results in a microwave pulse duration substantially less than that of the beam. Computer simulations suggest that anode plasma formation is responsible for this pulse shortening and are able to replicate key features of the experimental data