arXiv subjects

R. Seemann

Publications and source records attributed to R. Seemann.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2018

Energy dissipation in sheared wet granular assemblies

Energy dissipation in sheared dry and wet granulates is considered in the presence of an externally applied confining pressure. Discrete element simulations reveal that for sufficiently small confining pressures, the energy dissipation is dominated by the effects related to the presence of cohesive forces between the particles. The residual resistance against shear can be quantitatively explained by a combination of two effects arising in a wet granulate: i) enhanced friction at particle contacts in the presence of attractive capillary forces, and ii) energy dissipation due to the rupture and reformation of liquid bridges. Coulomb friction at grain contacts gives rise to an energy dissipation which grows linearly with increasing confining pressure, for both dry and wet granulates. Because of a lower Coulomb friction coefficient in the case of wet grains, as the confining pressure increases the energy dissipation for dry systems is faster than for wet ones.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2016

On the capillary self-focusing in a microfluidic system

A computational framework is developed to address capillary self-focusing in Step Emulsification. The microfluidic system consists of a single shallow and wide microchannel that merges into a deep reservoir. A continuum approach coupled with a volume of fluid method is used to model the capillary self-focusing effect. The original governing equations are reduced using the Hele-Shaw approximation. We show that the interface between the two fluids takes the shape of a neck narrowing in the flow direction just before entering the reservoir, in agreement with our experimental observations. Our computational model relies on the assumption that the pressure at the boundary, where the fluid exits into the reservoir, is the uniform pressure in the reservoir. We investigate this hypothesis by comparing the numerical results with experimental data. We conjecture that the pressure boundary condition becomes important when the width of the neck is comparable to the depth of the microchannel. A correction to the exit pressure boundary condition is then proposed, which is determined by comparison with experimental data. We also present the experimental observations and the numerical results of the transitions of breakup regimes.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2014

Capillary focusing close to a topographic step: Shape and instability of confined liquid filaments

Step-emulsification is a microfluidic technique for droplet generation which relies on the abrupt decrease of confinement of a liquid filament surrounded by a continuous phase. A striking feature of this geometry is the transition between two distinct droplet breakup regimes, the "step-regime" and "jet-regime", at a critical capillary number. In the step-regime, small and monodisperse droplets break off from the filament directly at a topographic step, while in the jet-regime a jet protrudes into the larger channel region and large plug-like droplets are produced. We characterize the breakup behavior as a function of the filament geometry and the capillary number and present experimental results on the shape and evolution of the filament for a wide range of capillary numbers in the jet-regime. We compare the experimental results with numerical simulations. Assumptions based on the smallness of the depth of the microfluidic channel allow to reduce the governing equations to the Hele-Shaw problem with surface tension. The full nonlinear equations are then solved numerically using a volume-of-fluid based algorithm. The computational framework also captures the transition between both regimes, offering a deeper understanding of the underlying breakup mechanism.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2010

Self-assembled granular walkers

Mechanisms of locomotion in microscopic systems are of great interest not only for technological applications, but also for the sake of understanding, and potentially harnessing, processes far from thermal equilibrium. Down-scaling is a particular challenge, and has led to a number of interesting concepts including thermal ratchet systems and asymmetric swimmers. Here we present a system which is particularly intriguing, as it is self-assembling and uses a robust mechanism which can be implemented in various settings. It consists of small spheres of different size which adhere to each other, and are subject to an oscillating (zero average) external force eld. An inherent nonlinearity in the mutual force network leads to force rectication and hence to locomotion. We present a model that accounts for the observed behaviour and demonstrates the wide applicability and potential scalability of the concept.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2007

Thermal noise influences fluid flow in thin films during spinodal dewetting

Experiments on dewetting thin polymer films confirm the theoretical prediction that thermal noise can strongly influence characteristic time-scales of fluid flow and cause coarsening of typical length scales. Comparing the experiments with deterministic simulations, we show that the Navier-Stokes equation has to be extended by a conserved bulk noise term to accomplish the observed spectrum of capillary waves. Due to thermal fluctuations the spectrum changes from an exponential to a power law decay for large wavevectors. Also the time evolution of the typical wavevector of unstable perturbations exhibits noise induced coarsening that is absent in deterministic hydrodynamic flow.

cond-mat.soft↗