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The snap of a finger has been used as a form of communication and music for millennia across human cultures. However, a systematic analysis of the dynamics of this rapid motion has not yet been performed. Using high-speed imaging and force sensors, we analyse the dynamics of the finger snap. We discover that the finger snap achieves peak angular accelerations of 1.6 × 10 6 ° s −2 in 7 ms, making it one of the fastest recorded angular accelerations the human body produces (exceeding professional baseball pitches). Our analysis reveals the central role of skin friction in mediating the snap dynamics by acting as a latch to control the resulting high velocities and accelerations. We evaluate the role of this frictional latch experimentally, by covering the thumb and middle finger with different materials to produce different friction coefficients and varying compressibility. In doing so, we reveal that the compressible, frictional latch of the finger pads likely operates in a regime optimally tuned for both friction and compression. We also develop a soft, compressible friction-based latch-mediated spring actuated model to further elucidate the key role of friction and how it interacts with a compressible latch. Our mathematical model reveals that friction plays a dual role in the finger snap, both aiding in force loading and energy storage while hindering energy release. Our work reveals how friction between surfaces can be harnessed as a tunable latch system and provides design insight towards the frictional complexity in many robotic and ultra-fast energy-release structures.

Fluid-filled biological cavities are ubiquitous, but their collective dynamics has remained largely unexplored from a physical perspective. Based on experimental observations in early embryos, we propose a model where a cavity forms through the coarsening of myriad of pressurized micrometric lumens, that interact by ion and fluid exchanges through the intercellular space. Performing extensive numerical simulations, we find that hydraulic fluxes lead to a self-similar coarsening of lumens in time, characterized by a robust dynamic scaling exponent. The collective dynamics is primarily controlled by hydraulic fluxes, which stem from lumen pressures differences and are dampened by water permeation through the membrane. Passive osmotic heterogeneities play, on the contrary, a minor role on cavity formation but active ion pumping can largely modify the coarsening dynamics: it prevents the lumen network from a collective collapse and gives rise to a novel coalescence-dominated regime exhibiting a distinct scaling law. Interestingly, we prove numerically that spatially biasing ion pumping may be sufficient to position the cavity, suggesting a novel mode of symmetry breaking to control tissue patterning. Providing generic testable predictions, our model forms a comprehensive theoretical basis for hydro-osmotic interaction between biological cavities, that shall find wide applications in embryo and tissue morphogenesis., Author summary The formation of a single biological cavity, or lumen, in tissues and embryos has been widely studied experimentally but the collective dynamics of multiple lumens has received much less attention. Here, we focus on a particular type of lumens, which are located at the adhesive side of cells and can therefore interact directly through the intercellular space, as recently observed in the very first stages of embryogenesis. We propose a generic model to describe the hydraulic and osmotic exchanges between lumens themselves, and with the surrounding cellular medium. Lumens are pressurized by a surface tension, which leads naturally to their coarsening into a single final cavity through hydraulic exchanges. With extensive numerical simulations and mean-field theory we predict that such coarsening dynamics follows a robust scaling law, that barely depends on concentration heterogeneities between lumens. On the contrary, active osmotic pumping largely influences the collective dynamics by favoring lumen coalescence and by biasing the position of the final cavity. Our theoretical work highlights the essential role of hydraulic and osmotic flows in morphogenesis.

The bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) swims in viscous fluids by rotating several helical flagellar filaments, which are gathered in a bundle behind the cell during ‘runs’ wherein the cell moves steadily forward. In between runs, the cell undergoes quick ‘tumble’ events, during which at least one flagellum reverses its rotation direction and separates from the bundle, resulting in erratic motion in place and a random reorientation of the cell. Alternating between runs and tumbles allows cells to sample space by stochastically changing their propulsion direction after each tumble. The change of direction during a tumble is not uniformly distributed but is skewed towards smaller angles with an average of about 62°–68°, as first measured by Berg and Brown (1972). Here we develop a theoretical approach to model the angular distribution of swimming E. coli cells during tumbles. We first use past experimental imaging results to construct a kinematic description of the dynamics of the flagellar filaments during a tumble. We then employ low-Reynolds number hydrodynamics to compute the consequences of the kinematic model on the force and torque balance of the cell and to deduce the overall change in orientation. The results of our model are in good agreement with experimental observations. We find that the main change of direction occurs during the ‘bundling’ part of the process wherein, at the end of a tumble, the dispersed flagellar filaments are brought back together in the helical bundle, which we confirm using a simplified forced-sphere model.

Effects of variable airflow on particle motion in spout-fluid beds are studied. Computational fluid dynamics using Navier–Stokes equations for the gas phase coupled with the discrete element method using Newton’s laws for the solid phase have been employed. Results indicate that increasing the fluidizing velocity diminishes dead zones and increases both the total height of the bed and the traversed distance by particles in the steady spout-fluid bed. In pulsed airflows, two configurations are investigated, namely, the spouted pulsed-fluidized bed with pulsed flow of the fluidizing velocity, and the pulsed-spouted fluidized bed with pulsed flow of the spouting velocity. The positive effect of pulsation on particle motion is shown and the effects of parameters, such as amplitude and frequency, on the dynamics of the bed are investigated in each configuration. An increase of up to 19% in traversed distance is found for the range studied, which suggests flow pulsation as a promising technique for increasing particle mixing in spout-fluid beds.

Discrete Element Method (DEM) and Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamics (SPH) are integrated to investigate the macroscopic dynamics of fluid–particle–structure interaction (FPSI) problems. With SPH the fluid phase is represented by a set of particle elements moving in accordance with the Navier–Stokes equations. The solid phase consists of physical particle(s) and deformable solid structure(s) which are represented by DEM using a linear contact model and a linear parallel contact model to account for the interaction between particle elements, respectively. To couple the fluid phase and solid particles, a local volume fraction and a weighted average algorithm are proposed to reformulate the governing equations and the interaction forces. The structure is coupled with the fluid phase by incorporating the structure’s particle elements in SPH algorithm. The interaction forces between the solid particles and the structure are computed using the linear contact model in DEM. The proposed model is capable of simulating simultaneously fluid–structure interaction (FSI), particle–particle interaction and fluid–particle interaction (FPI), with good agreement between complicated hybrid numerical methods and experimental results being achieved. Finally, a specific test is carried out to demonstrate the capability of the integrated particle model for simulating FPSI problems with the occurrence of structural failure.

The eccentric needle motion has been regarded as an important cause of in-nozzle flow disturbances and hole-to-hole spray variations of modern fuel injectors. However, the experimental investigations on this subject have rarely been reported due to great difficulties in the direct measurements of eccentric needle motion and the flow characteristics of individual holes in an injection nozzle. In this study, the axial and eccentric needle motion and the near-nozzle spray dynamics of 3-hole, 5-hole and 8-hole diesel injection nozzles were investigated in varied injection pressure conditions using an X-ray phase-contrast imaging technique. The eccentric needle motion and near-nozzle spray axial velocity showed temporal oscillations during the injection with different oscillation frequencies. The frequencies of these two oscillations were independent to the nozzle hole number and injection pressure. To discuss the mutual dependency of these two oscillations, the time traces of the spray axial velocity were measured for individual holes. The results showed that the oscillation phase, frequency and amplitude of the spray axial velocity were almost identical for all holes, which indicated that the sac pressure variation rather than hole-to-hole flow variation can be the primary cause of the spray axial velocity oscillation by the eccentric needle motion. The adequacy of this consideration was thoroughly discussed using a mass balance model in the nozzle sac that predicted the sac pressure variation during an injection event.

In this paper we look at instabilities in bubbly gas-liquid flows and investigate the emergence and characteristics of phase heterogeneities. We apply a shared-pressure two-fluid model to low bubble loadings and demonstrate the existence of persistent gas fraction instabilities of a characteristic size larger than the applied computational grid. In particular, we investigate the influence of a virtual mass effect on the stability of the two-fluid model and we demonstrate a change in the emergence and the dynamics of the phase heterogeneities. The change is accounted to a difference in the degree of hyperbolicity due to the inclusion of the virtual mass force. Furthermore, the results indicate that an initial instability, concluded as numerical in its character, evolves into a state with a physical character of the heterogeneities. We discuss implications of the existence and dynamics of the heterogeneities and the importance of the numerical behavior for interpretation of the results. In particular, we argue that underlying characteristics of the model cannot and should not be concealed with additional sub-models (such as momentum exchange terms) but must be acknowledged in the analysis of results from the two-fluid model for bubbly flows.

We revisit the approach proposed by F.L. Chernousko to modeling the dynamics of a rigid body with a cavity entirely filled with a highly viscous fluid. Within the approach, a finite-dimensional model of the body+fluid system is offered and the influence of the fluid is represented as a special torque acting upon the body with solidified fluid. Our aim is to develop further and expand a few technical aspects of the Chernousko model. In particular, we offer a coordinate-free form for some essential formulas and consider the case of constrained dynamics. To illustrate the results obtained we explore the motion of a physical pendulum with a fluid-filled cavity on a rotating platform.

This study reports experimental findings on the sinking dynamics of a heavy granular ring caused by the density-driven segregation effect in sheared granular flows. Specifically, this study systematically investigates the influences of the density ratio, shear rate, and solid fraction of the granular material on the sinking behavior of a heavy granular ring. The parameters of the dimensionless sinking depth and sinking rate, respectively, describe the change in the granular ring position and quantify the particle sinking speed. Experimental results show that both the dimensionless sinking depth and the sinking rate increase as the bottom wall velocity (shear rate) and solid fraction increase. The dimensionless sinking depth and the sinking rate also exhibit a linear relation. The dimensionless sinking depth does not increase monotonically as the density ratio increases. The sinking rate increases linearly with the final steady-state sinking depth for the same heavy granular ring structure, regardless of the wall velocity (shear rate), solid fraction, and density ratio.

Using a hybrid simulation method that combines a lattice-Boltzmann approach for the flow and a molecular dynamics model for the polymer, we investigated the polymer escape from a confining nanotube in a reverse flow. We demonstrate the substantial disparity in escape dynamics of the confined polymer for the cases with and without the reverse flow. Our simulations confirm the existence of a reverse critical velocity flux, which results from a balance between the entropic force (confinement free energy) and the hydrodynamic force (velocity of the flow). Furthermore, we find that the increase in the velocity flux reduces the escape velocity of the polymer, whereas the influence of variations in the diameter of the confining nanotube on the escape velocity of the polymer remains insignificant. The increasing velocity flux forces the polymer to escape along the boundary of the nanotubes with a stretched conformation. This phenomena turns less obvious with the increase in the diameter of the confining nanotube....

Models for the dynamics of a dust-like medium in the self-gravity field are investigated. Solutions of the corresponding problems are constructed by the method of hydrodynamic substitutions generalizing the Cole–Hopf substitutions. The method is extended to multidimensional ideal and viscous fluid flows with cylindrical and spherical symmetries for which exact solutions are constructed. Solutions for the dynamics of self-gravitating dust with arbitrary initial distributions of both fluid density and velocity are constructed using special coordinate transformations. In particular, the problem of cosmological expansion is considered in terms of Newton’s gravity theory. Models of a one-dimensional viscous dust fluid flow and some problems of gas hydrodynamics are considered. Examples of exact solutions and their brief analysis are provided.

The paper compares two methods based on finite element simulations to assess the external dynamics and the internal mechanics in ship collisions. One method treats independently the external dynamics and the internal mechanics (decoupled method), while the other one couples their interaction (coupled method). In the decoupled method, the external dynamics are evaluated by the analytical approach of Pedersen and Zhang (1998), and the internal mechanics are assessed by simulations performed with the LS-DYNA finite element solver. In the coupled method, both the external dynamics and the internal mechanics are evaluated directly by numerical simulations that follow the model of Pill and Tabri (2011). The two methods are compared to determine the differences in predicting the deformation and rupture of the collided ship structures and to assess the relationship between the structural deformation energy of the struck ship and the energy loss of the striking ship. The objective of the paper is to verify whether the decoupled method satisfies the predictions required for design appraisal assessments. The paper also illustrates the influence of the collision angle on the mechanics of ship collisions.

We demonstrate a new specific phenomenon of the long-time resonant energy exchange in carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which is realized by two types of optical vibrations, the Circumferential Flexure Mode (CFM) and the Radial Breathing Mode (RBM). We show that the modified nonlinear Schrdinger equation, obtained in the framework of the nonlinear theory of elastic thin shells, allows us to describe the nonlinear dynamics of CNTs for specified frequency bands. Comparative analysis of the oscillations of the CFM and RBM branches shows the qualitative difference of nonlinear effects for these branches. While the nonlinear resonant interaction of the low-frequency modes in the CFM branch leads to energy capture in some domains of the CNT, the same interaction in the RBM branch does not demonstrate any tendency for energy localization. The reason lies in the distinction in the nonlinear terms in the equations of motion. While CFMs are characterized by soft polynomial nonlinearity, RBM dynamics is characterized by hard gradient nonlinearity. Moreover, in contrast to the CFM, the importance of nonlinearity in the case of RBM oscillations decreases as the length to radius ratio increases. Numerical integration of the equations of thin shell theory confirms the results of the analytical study.

Resolved Computational Fluid Dynamics-Discrete Element Method is an attractive approach for simulating multiphase flows of fluid-solid mixtures, as it includes a 4-way coupling. However, many of its modernimplementations neglect the torque coupling between the fractions. Here we augment the CFDEM®coupling toolkit to allow it to capture this interaction and use it to simulate sedimentation of spherical grains in two-dimensional narrow fractures, with and without grain rotation taken into account. While the rotational effects turns out to change the dynamics of individual grains, it does not affect the average settling velocity significantly.

Averaged fields of thickness of an isothermal vertically flowing liquid film, obtained by the laserinduced fluorescence method, have been analyzed. The chosen minimum averaging time interval, at which the wave motion is completely averaged, allows one to observe rivulet dynamics in a transverse direction. It is found that short-lived rivulets, which are chains of no less than five to eight waves with similar transverse coordinates, are dominant structures on the film surface at Reynolds number Re > 50.

A model for the dynamics of a Gao elastic or viscoelastic nonlinear beam that is subject to a horizontally moving vertical point-force is modeled and computationally studied. In particular, the behavior and vibrations of the beam as the mass is moving on it is investigated. Such problems arise naturally in transportation systems with rails. A time-marching finite element numerical algorithm for the problem is developed and implemented. Results of representative simulations are depicted and compared to the behavior of a linear Euler beam with a moving mass.

In this paper we introduce a novel method to adaptive incompressible SPH simulations. Instead of using a scheme with a number of fixed particle sizes or levels, our approach allows continuous particle sizes. This enables us to define optimal particle masses with respect to, e.g., the distance to the fluid's surface. A required change in mass due to the dynamics of the fluid is properly and stably handled by our scheme of mass redistribution. This includes temporally smooth changes in particle masses as well as sudden mass variations in regions of high flow dynamics. Our approach guarantees low spatial variations in particle size, which is a core property in order to achieve large adaptivity ratios for incompressible fluid simulations. Conceptually, our approach allows for infinite continuous adaptivity, practically we achieved adaptivity ratios up to 5 orders of magnitude, while still being mass preserving and numerically stable, yielding unprecedented vivid surface detail at comparably low computational cost and moderate particle counts.

The present paper proposes a multiphase flow approach for capturing the time-resolved collapse course of bubble clusters in various geometrical configurations. The simulation method is first verified by computing the dynamic behavior of an isolated vapor bubble placed in a uniform ambient pressure. The comparison between the numerical result and the theoretical solution indicates that the method can accurately capture the bubble shape, the characteristic time and the extremely high pressure induced by the collapse. Then the simulation method is applied to investigate the behavior of two kinds of bubble clusters in hexagonal and cubic geometrical configurations. The predicted collapsing sequence and the shape characteristics of the bubbles are generally in agreement with the experimental results. The bubbles transform and break from the outer layer toward the inner layers. In each layer, the bubbles on the corner first change into a pea shape and cave before collapsing, then the bubbles on the sides begin to shrink. It is also found that, in comparison with the case of an isolated single bubble, the central bubble in the cluster always contracts more slowly at the early stage and collapses more violently at the final stage.

The atomic scale interfacial microstructure evolution and heat dissipation process in nanoscale friction are investigated by 3D non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Two Ni blocks of different orientations are built to simulate the self-mate friction. The embedded atom (EAM) potentials are employed in these simulations. The microstructure evolution is observed. The temperature and velocity profiles along the height direction, which is perpendicular to the direction of motion, are calculated under sliding velocity. The heat dissipation process is studied. The effect of sliding velocity is also obtained. The results show that extensive plastic deformation and temperature rise occur in the interface. Atomic scale mechanical mixing and generation of mixing layer are observed in the regions near the contact interface. The sliding velocity has great impact on temperature rise. The study of the growth dynamics of mixing layer also sheds light on the formation process of mixing layer.

To better understand the dynamic characteristics of a hydrostatic spindle in fluid-structure coupling, the impact of oil film slip on the 4 dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of the spindle is studied. On the basis of modified Reynolds equation, which considers the microscale velocity slip effect, rotation error of the spindle is calculated. To solve the rotor axis orbit under the existence of eccentric quality, 4 dynamic stiffness and damping coefficients of the oil film, which describe the dynamics of a rotor axis orbit, are calculated by using load increment method and the pressure perturbation method. The research results show that velocity slip caused a certain impact on dynamics of bearing stiffness and damping performance. The experiment of the measuring path of the shaft verifies the correct and effect of the orbit of shaft center model.

In this work, we propose a new method for studying dynamics in a liquid crystal arising from torques due to an externally imposed shear flow or other sources of torque. Here a spatially homogeneous...

In this paper, the dynamic stability of the fluid-conveying in the periodically composite pipeline (FCPCP) is researched, and the FCPCP system is divided into two parts: pipeline with partial viscoelastic composite part and the conveying-fluid part. The in-plane variables of the first part are calculated by the Zig-Zag laminated shell theory, and the equilibrium equations are obtained by Hamilton's principle. Meanwhile, the equilibrium equations of the fluid part are mainly obtained by Newton's Second law. The govern equations of the FCPCP system can be determined by combining the equations obtained of the two parts, and considering the boundary conditions, and the instability of the current structure can be obtained by solve the govern equation system. The factors (Such as the thickness ratio of the pipeline, the thickness of viscoelastic damping layer and the viscoelastic composite fraction, etc.) which affected the instability of FCPCP is thoroughly examined, and validate is performed finally.

The dynamics of the process of forming the rotating orbital tether system, which is a bundle of two small satellites, is analyzed. The cases of transition deployed tether system in rotation by means of two electric jet engines located on the end bodies are considered. Engines together form a pair of forces required sign, the control program includes active and passive portions of the motion system. Satellites are material points whose masses are comparable in magnitude, and the tether is weightless. The control program is formed by a relatively simple model in the mobile orbital coordinate system in the case of inextensible tether. The elongation effect of the tether, which leads to its eventual sagging is analyzed by a more complete model in a fixed geocentric coordinate system.

In this paper we consider an ignition-temperature, first-order reaction model of thermo-diffusive combustion that describes dynamics of thick flames arising, for example, in a theory of combustion of hydrogen-oxygen and ethylene-oxygen mixtures. These flames often assume the shape of propagating curved interfaces that can be identified with level sets corresponding to a prescribed ignition temperature. The present paper is concerned with the analysis of such interfaces in two spatial dimensions under a single assumption of their small curvature. We derive a strongly nonlinear evolution equation that governs the dynamics of an interface. This equation relates the normal velocity of the interface to its curvature, the derivatives of the curvature with respect to the arc-length of the interface, and physical parameters of the problem. We study solutions of the evolution equation for various parameter regimes and discuss the ranges of validity of the corresponding simplified models. Our theoretical findings a...

A theoretical and experimental investigation of the rotational dynamics, including friction, of a slamming door is presented. Based on existing work regarding different damping models for rotational and oscillatory motions, we examine different forms for the (angular) velocity dependence (ωn, n = 0, 1, 2) of the frictional force. An analytic solution is given when all three friction terms are present and several solutions for specific cases known from the literature are reproduced. The motion of a door is investigated experimentally using a smartphone, and the data are compared with the theoretical results. A laboratory experiment under more controlled conditions is conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the movement of a slammed door. Our findings provide quantitative evidence that damping models involving quadratic air drag are most appropriate for the slamming of a door. Examining this everyday example of a physical phenomenon increases student motivation, because they can relate it to their own p...

The interaction of a shock wave in a gas phase with a system of particles moving in this gas has been numerically simulated. The wave pattern of the nonstationary interaction of the propagating shock wave with these particles is described in detail. The mathematical model and computational technology employed is compared with experimental data on the dynamics of particles behind the shock wave. It is established that the approximate model of separate particles used to calculate relaxation of their velocities unsatisfactorily operates in the presence of a mutual influence of particles, whereby one particle can occur in the aerodynamic shadow of an adjacent particle.

In this paper we use the conformable derivative to study the dynamics of a particle in a viscoelastic medium. We discuss two examples. One is the resisted horizontal motion of a particle in a viscoelastic medium and another is the resisted horizontal motion of a particle in a viscoelastic medium with a uniform force F 0.

The effect of gasification on the dynamics and kinematics of immersed spherical and non-spherical solid particles have been investigated using the three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann method. The ga ...

In the interaction of the forces responsible for the motion of batch and gases, account must be taken not only of the gravitational force on the batch column but also of the gravitational force on the gases. Accordingly, the difference in the work of the gravitational forces on fluxes corresponding to the lower and upper pressure losses must be determined. The work increases with increase in gas pressure in the furnace. Consequently, the pressure losses increase without preventing the intensification of the blast-furnace process.

We develop a theoretical model of anomalous transport with polymerization-reaction dynamics. We are motivated by the experimental problem of actin polymerization occurring in a microfluidic device with a comb-like geometry. Depending on the concentration of reagents, two limiting regimes for the propagation of reaction are recovered: the failure of the reaction front propagation and a finite speed of the reaction front corresponding to the Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovskii-Piscounov (FKPP) at the long time asymptotic regime. To predict the relevance of these regimes we obtain an explicit expression for the transient time as a function of geometry and parameters of the experimental setup. Explicit analytical expressions of the reaction front velocity are obtained as functions of the experimental setup. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The directed transport in a one-dimensional overdamped, Brownian motor subjected to a travelling wave potential with variable shape and exposed to an external bias is studied numerically. We focus our attention on the class of Remoissenet–Peyrard parametrized on-site potentials with slight modification, whose shape can be varied as a function of a parameter s , recovering the sine–Gordon shape as the special case. We demonstrate that in the presence of the travelling wave potential the observed dynamical properties of the Brownian motor which crucially depends on the travelling wave speed, the intensity of the noise and the external load is significantly influenced also by the geometry of the system. In particular, we notice that systems with sharp wells and broad barriers favour the transport under the influence of an applied load. The efficiency of transport of Brownian motors in deformable systems remains equal to 1 (in the absence of an applied load) up to a critical value of the travelling wave speed greater than that of the pure sine–Gordon shape.

To understand the behavior of composite fluid particles such as nucleated cells and double-emulsions in flow, we study a finite-size particle encapsulated in a deforming droplet under shear flow as a model system. In addition to its concentric particle-droplet configuration, we numerically explore other eccentric and time-periodic equilibrium solutions, which emerge spontaneously via supercritical pitchfork and Hopf bifurcations. We present the loci of these solutions around the codimenstion-two point. We adopt a dynamical system approach to model and characterize the coupled behavior of the two bifurcations. By exploring the flow fields and hydrodynamic forces in detail, we identify the role of hydrodynamic particle-droplet interaction which gives rise to these bifurcations.

This communication is devoted to theoretical analysis of the dynamics of a solitary cavitation bubble pulsating in a compressible viscous liquid under the action of a nonuniform acoustic field. The system of two nonlinear ordinary second-order differential equations is integrated numerically. In the range of acoustic field parameters corresponding to the principal resonance region, the bubble performs large-scale spatial oscillations. It is shown that in a very small range of initial radii, the bubble stops its oscillatory motion due to stochastic pulsations and is expelled into the region of the acoustic-pressure block. Therefore, stochastic pulsations of the bubble radically change the form of the solution to the system of the above-mentioned equations.

The tethered formation and the coulomb formation are two important concepts in constructing satellite formation architecture, and they have the advantage that the relative motion between satellites can be maintained quite accurately with minimal active control. In this study, a formation termed the “coulomb tether double-pyramid” is proposed to combine the best features of the tethered formation and the coulomb formation. Chief and deputy satellites are charged bodies and located in the Earth-facing plane normal to the geostationary orbit, with the chief at the center. Each deputy is connected with two anchor satellites via a massless, straight tether, such that the Earth-facing plane can be maintained by using gravity-gradient torques. First, the equations of motion are obtained via Lagrange equations. Then, the charges and tether extensions necessary to support a Hill-frame stationary formation are analytically determined. Finally, open-loop charge control strategies are designed to maintain the spinnin...

We have used speckle visibility spectroscopy (SVS) and synchronized force measurements to compare the granular dynamics of two cohesive lactose powders, with Sauter mean diameters of ~29 and ~151 μm, in a rotating drum. A load cell (LC) was used to measure forces on the drum mounting frame and enable monitoring of bulk powder motion; SVS is a dynamic light scattering technique particularly suited for studying dynamics in dense, non-ergodic granular systems. Our results reveal that surface slumping and intermittent collisional dynamics in the bulk of the bed are correlated, especially for the fine more cohesive particles (Geldart group C/A boundary), but not as much for the less cohesive larger particles (Geldart group A/B boundary). The specific dissipation energy of the particles in the drum is similar for both powders, and increases linearly with increasing drum speed. However, the dependencies of the load cell and SVS signals on rotation speed have opposing trends for these two powders, indicating different dissipation mechanisms for the different Geldart Groups; collisional dissipation is more important for the Geldart C/A powder, while for the Geldart A/B powder avalanche dissipation is dominant.

A snap of a finger on an elongated cylinder produces on it a surprising fast spinning motion during which its mass center rises with very large oscillations. After that, the mass center goes to a long quasi-stationary oscillations state and eventually goes down very slowly. To explain this behavior we present a theoretical and numerical analysis of the dynamics of a spinning elongated cylinder moving with a single point of contact on a horizontal plane under the action of gravity. The study has been made taking into account the rolling and sliding dissipation as well as the Kutta–Joukowski airflow effect. The results of the simulations are in agreement qualitatively with the observed real motion.

The equations of dynamics of elastic shells subjected to large deformations are formulated. The Eulerian coordinates on a circular cylinder and time are accepted as independent variables, and one of the unknown functions is the distance from a point of the shell surface to the cylinder axis. The equations of dynamics of nonlinearly elastic shells in the Eulerian coordinates are convenient for exact formulation of the problem on the interaction of strongly deformable shells with moving fluids and gases. The equations obtained can be used for dynamic calculations of fluids and gases flowings in pipelines, blood vessels, hoses, and other nonlinearly deformable thin-walled tubular elements of constructions.

The problem of pendular oscillations of a tether attached to an irregularly shaped celestial body is studied in this paper. The dynamic analysis of the system is performed by examining the phase plane trajectories. The effect of the tether length as well as the higher order terms in the gravitational potential of the celestial body on the tether dynamics is investigated. It is demonstrated that consideration of the finite size of the celestial body can have significant effects on the tether dynamics, while the effect of the asphericity of the celestial body on the tether dynamics is negligible. This study is of practical relevance for asteroid deflection using tethers, as well as for the development of space elevators on small planets/moons.

Determination of high-speed crafts’ hydrodynamic coefficients will help to analyze the dynamics of these kinds of vessels and the factors affecting their dynamic stabilities. Also, it can be useful and effective in controlling the vessel instabilities. The main purpose of this study is to determine the coefficients of longitudinal motions of a planing catamaran with and without a hydrofoil using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes method to evaluate the foil effects on them. Determination of hydrodynamic coefficients by experimental approach is costly and requires meticulous laboratory equipment; therefore, utilizing the numerical methods and developing a virtual laboratory seem highly efficient. In this study, the numerical results for hydrodynamic coefficients of a high-speed craft are verified against Troesch’s experimental results. In the following, after determination of hydrodynamic coefficients of a planing catamaran with and without foil, the foil effects on its hydrodynamic coefficients are evaluated. The results indicate that most of the coefficients are frequency-independent especially at high frequencies.

The behavior of granular flows inside rotating drums is an ongoing area of research. Only a few studies have investigated non-spherical particles despite the fact that particle shape is known to have a significant impact on flow behavior. In addition, the experimental techniques limit the interpretation of the results of these studies. In this work, we compared the flow behavior of cylindrical and spherical particles using the multiple radioactive particle tracking technique to capture the positions and orientations of cylindrical particles simultaneously. We analyzed two important components of the transverse flow dynamics, that is, the boundary between the active and passive layers, and the velocity profile on the free surface. For the cylindrical particles, two general models are proposed to calculate the velocity profiles on the free surface and the effective particle sizes in the active and passive layers. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 2622–2634, 2016