Capillarity and Wetting Phenomena: Drops, Bubbles, Pearls, Waves

流体力学杂志“Journal of Fluid Mechanics”由剑桥大学教授George Batchelor在1956年5月创办，在国际流体力学界享有很高的学术声望，被公认为是流体力学最著名的学术刊物之一，2005年的影响因子为2．061，雄居同类期刊之首．在它创刊50周年之际，2006年5月JFM出版了第554卷的纪念特刊，其中刊登了现任主编（美国西北大学S．H．Davis教授和英国剑桥大学T．J．Pedley教授）合写的述评：“Editorial：JFM at50”，以JFM为背景，从独特的视角对近50年来流体力学的发展进行了简明的回顾和展望，并归纳了一系列非常有启发性的有趣统计数字．2006年7月21日在剑桥大学应用数学和理论物理研究所（DAMTP）举行了创刊50周年的庆祝会．下午2点，JFM的新老编辑和来宾会聚一堂，Pedley教授致开幕词，其后是5个精彩的报告：The mysterious rattleback and its fluid counterpart（Keith Moffatt），Developments in shear instabilities（Patrick Huerre），Falling clouds（Elisabeth Guazzelli），Ecotectural fluid mechanics（Paul Linden），The success of JFM（Herbert Huppert），最后由Davis教授致闭幕词．

Journal of Fluid Mechanics创刊50周年

Self-actuating materials capable of transforming between three-dimensional shapes have applications in areas as diverse as biomedicine, robotics, and tunable micro-optics. We introduce a method of photopatterning polymer films that yields temperature-responsive gel sheets that can transform between a flat state and a prescribed three-dimensional shape. Our approach is based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) copolymers containing pendent benzophenone units that allow cross-linking to be tuned by irradiation dose. We describe a simple method of halftone gel lithography using only two photomasks, wherein highly cross-linked dots embedded in a lightly cross-linked matrix provide access to nearly continuous, and fully two-dimensional, patterns of swelling. This method is used to fabricate surfaces with constant Gaussian curvature (spherical caps, saddles, and cones) or zero mean curvature (Enneper’s surfaces), as well as more complex and nearly closed shapes.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/335/6073/1201.full.pdf

Designing responsive buckled surfaces by halftone gel lithography.

The English-language dictionary defines wrinkles as "small furrows, ridges, or creases on a normally smooth surface, caused by crumpling, folding, or shrinking". In this paper we review the scientific aspects of wrinkling and the related phenomenon of buckling. Specifically, we discuss how and why wrinkles/buckles form in various materials. We also describe several examples from everyday life, which demonstrate that wrinkling or buckling is indeed a commonplace phenomenon that spans a multitude of length scales. We will emphasize that wrinkling is not always a frustrating feature (e.g., wrinkles in human skin), as it can help to assemble new structures, understand important physical phenomena, and even assist in characterizing chief material properties.

Soft matter with hard skin : From skin wrinkles to templating and material characterization

Morphological instabilities and surface wrinkling of soft materials such as gels and biological tissues are of growing interest to a number of academic disciplines including soft lithography, metrology, flexible electronics, and biomedical engineering. In this paper, we review some of the recent progresses in experimental and theoretical investigations of instabilities that lead to the emergence and evolution of surface wrinkling, folding and creasing under various geometrical constraints (e.g., thin films, sheets, fibers, particles, tubes, cavities, vesicles and capsules) and loading stimuli (e.g., mechanical forces, growth, atrophy, swelling, shrinkage, van der Waals interactions). Some representative theoretical and numerical approaches aimed at modelling the onset of instabilities as well as the postbuckling evolution involving multiple bifurcations and symmetry-breakings are discussed along with the main characteristics and some possible applications of this rich phenomenon.

Mechanics of morphological instabilities and surface wrinkling in soft materials: a review

Recently, much attention has been given to a noteworthy property of some soft tissues: their ability to grow. Many attempts have been made to model this behavior in biology, chemistry, and physics. Using the theory of finite elasticity, Rodriguez has postulated a multiplicative decomposition of the geometric deformation gradient into a growth-induced part and an elastic one needed to ensure compatibility of the body. In order to fully explore the consequences of this hypothesis, the equations describing thin elastic objects under finite growth are derived. Under appropriate scaling assumptions for the growth rates, the proposed model is of the Foppl-von Karman type. As an illustration, the circumferential growth of a free hyperelastic disk is studied.

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Morphogenesis of growing soft tissues.

The shape of plants and other living organisms is a crucial element of their biological functioning. Morphogenesis is the result of complex growth processes involving biological, chemical and physical factors at different temporal and spatial scales. This study aims at describing stresses and strains induced by the production and reorganization of the material. The mechanical properties of soft tissues are modeled within the framework of continuum mechanics in finite elasticity. The kinematical description is based on the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient tensor into an elastic and a growth term. Using this formalism, the authors have studied the growth of thin hyperelastic samples. Under appropriate assumptions, the dimensionality of the problem can be reduced, and the behavior of the plate is described by a two-dimensional surface. The results of this theory demonstrate that the corresponding equilibrium equations are of the Foppl–von Karman type where growth acts as a source of mean and Gaussian curvatures. Finally, the cockling of paper and the rippling of a grass blade are considered as two examples of growth-induced pattern formation.

Morphogenesis of thin hyperelastic plates: A constitutive theory of biological growth in the Föppl-von Kármán limit

In response to natural or anthropocentric pollutions coupled to global climate changes, microorganisms from aquatic environments can suddenly accumulate on water surface. These dense suspensions, known as blooms, are harmful to ecosystems and signicantly degrade the quality of water resources. In order to determine the physico-chemical parameters involved in their formation and quantitatively predict their appearance, we successfully reproduced irreversible cyanobacterial blooms in vitro. By combining chemical, biochemical and hydrodynamic evidences, we identify a mechanism, unrelated to the presence of internal gas vesicles, allowing the sudden collective upward migration in test tubes of several cyanobacterial strains (Microcystis aeruginosa PCC 7005, Microcystis aeruginosa PCC 7806 and Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803). The final state consists in a foamy layer of biomass at the air-liquid interface, in which micro-organisms remain alive for weeks, the medium lying below being almost completely depleted of cyanobacteria. These "laboratory blooms" start with the aggregation of cells at high ionic force in cyanobacterial strains that produce anionic extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Under appropriate conditions of nutrients and light intensity, the high photosynthetic activity within cell clusters leads the dissolved oxygen (DO) to supersaturate and to nucleate into bubbles. Trapped within the EPS, these bubbles grow until their buoyancy pulls the biomass towards the free surface. By investigating a wide range of spatially homogeneous environmental conditions (illumination, salinity, cell and nutrient concentration) we identify species-dependent thresholds and timescales for bloom formation. We conclude on the relevance of such results for cyanobacterial bloom formation in the environment and we propose an ecient method for biomass harvesting in bioreactors.

/pdf/irreversible-collective-migration-of-cyanobacteria-in-mefftnodm4.pdf

Irreversible Collective Migration of Cyanobacteria in Eutrophic Conditions

Using swelling hydrogels, we study the evolution of a thin circular artificial tumor whose growth is confined at the periphery. When the volume of the outer proliferative ring increases, the tumor loses its initial symmetry and bifurcates towards an oscillatory shape. Depending on the geometrical and elastic parameters, we observe either a smooth large-wavelength undulation of the swelling layer or the formation of sharp creases at the free boundary. Our experimental results as well as previous observations from other studies are in very good agreement with a nonlinear poroelastic model.

/pdf/shape-transition-in-artificial-tumors-from-smooth-buckles-to-2kxk1qbz6o.pdf

Shape transition in artificial tumors: from smooth buckles to singular creases.

Although the study of gels undoubtedly takes its roots within the field of physicochemistry, the interest in gels has flourished and they have progressively become an important object in the study of the mechanics of polymeric materials and volumetric growth, raising some fascinating problems, some of them remaining unsolved. Because gels are multiphase objects, their study represents an important step in the understanding of the mechanics of complex soft matter as well as for the process of shape generation in biological bodies. The scope of this article is to review the understanding we have of the mechanical behavior of gels, with a strong focus on the development of instabilities in swelling gels.

Julien Dervaux

Papers

Morphogenesis of growing soft tissues.

Morphogenesis of thin hyperelastic plates: A constitutive theory of biological growth in the Föppl-von Kármán limit

Irreversible Collective Migration of Cyanobacteria in Eutrophic Conditions

Shape transition in artificial tumors: from smooth buckles to singular creases.

Mechanical Instabilities of Gels