Self-organization mediated by surface waves
Context The controlled manipulation of fluids and solids on fluid interfaces is of great importance in science and industry. Interfacial instabilities constitute a powerful tool for such manipulations. Furthermore, they can serve as a platform for the realization of artificial active matter at fluid interfaces.
Project In the Faraday instability a liquid bath exhibits surface waves when oscillated vertically. In this project, the Faraday instability will be used as a tool to control the organization of collections of floating centimeterscale solid objects. Variation of the object shape, the instability pattern and the boundary conditions would allow us to explore a number of different self-organizing systems, while investigating the interplay between gravity-capillary surface waves and floating objects.
Required skills Expertise in experimental Fluid Mechanics, setting up and control of experiments through hardware and software (Matlab, Arduino…). Interest in theoretical modelling of the experiments. Collaborations Possible collaboration with MIT and Brown University. Contact: Giuseppe Pucci, [email protected] Links: http://www.gpucci.net http://cnrsinfo.cnrs.fr/intranet/actus/171221-momentum.html