Wet granular walkers and climbers

Details Wet granular walkers and climbers Wet granular walkers and climbers

May 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011njph...13e3041k&link_type=abstract

New Journal of Physics, Volume 13, Issue 5, pp. 053041 (2011).

Physics

Scientific paper

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. Downscaling is a particular challenge and has led to a number of interesting concepts, including thermal ratchet systems and asymmetric swimmers. Here we present a granular ratchet system employing a particularly robust mechanism that can be implemented in various settings. The system consists of wetted spheres of different sizes that adhere to each other, and are subject to a symmetric oscillating, zero average external force field. An inherent asymmetry in the mutual force network leads to force rectification and hence to locomotion. We present a simple model that accounts for the observed behaviour, underscores its robustness and suggests a potential scalability of the concept.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Wet granular walkers and climbers does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Wet granular walkers and climbers, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Wet granular walkers and climbers will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-941193