Spontaneous Cargo Transport via Sliding Bubbles on a Superhydrophobic Wire.

The transportation and carrying behavior of underwater bubbles have been widely used for an underwater microactuator, cargo displacement assembly, and drug delivery. This study explores a method for underwater cargo transportation using sliding bubbles as a vehicle with directionally guided superhydrophobic wires. By exploitation of the adhesion between superhydrophobic surfaces and bubble interfaces, a bubble is able to transport a superhydrophobic O-ring along a superhydrophobic wire, effectively delivering the O-ring to the water surface.

On-Demand Transport Bubbles Adhering to Noncontiguous Patterned Superhydrophobic Surfaces Using a Superhydrophobic Tweezer.

Bubble transportation and related flotation are ubiquitous phenomena in nature and industry. Various surfaces with distinct morphologies and specific wettability properties have been engineered by organisms in nature and by humans to facilitate the targeted movement of bubbles. However, existing methods predominantly rely on continuous surfaces, limiting the ability of bubbles to deviate from their path before reaching their intended destination.

A self-cleaning micro-fluidic chip biospired by the filtering system of manta rays.

Size-based particle filtration has become indispensable in numerous biomedical and environmental applications. In this study, bioinspired by the filter-feeding mechanism (lobe filtration) of manta rays, we designed a U-shaped biomimetic gill rake filter that combined lobe filtration and Dean flow to filter monodisperse suspensions, bi-disperse suspensions and yeast cells. Compared with other equipment using the inertial focusing technology, our equipment can perform high-throughput (up to 8 mL min) and high-efficiency filtration of particles (maximum filtration efficiencies of 96.

Design and calibration of the 6-DOF motion tracking system integrated on the Stewart parallel manipulator.

Accurate pose measurement is crucial for parallel manipulators (PM). This study designs a novel integrated 6-DOF motion tracking system to achieve precise online pose measurement. However, the presence of geometric errors introduces imperfections in the accuracy of the measured pose.

Spontaneous Rising of a Whirling-Swimmer Driven by a Bubble.

The wind-dispersed seeds can rotate and fall like small vehicles with the help of the wind to obtain a longer propagation distance. Inspired by this, we propose a novel bubble-driven three-bladed whirling-swimmer (WS) to travel in the fluid as a vehicle. Four types of WSs with blade folding angles (φ) ranging from 10 to 60° were designed, and their swimming performance was evaluated.

Settling velocity variation induced by a sphere moving across a two-layer stratified fluid with different rheological characteristics.

Particle settling in stratified fluids is widespread in chemical and pharmaceutical processes, and how to effectively regulate the particle velocity is the key to optimizing the above process technology. In this study, the settling of individual particle in two stratified fluids, water-oil and water-PAAm was studied using the high-speed shadow imaging method. In the Newtonian stratified fluid of water-oil, the particle penetrates the liquid-liquid interface and forms unsteady entrained drops of different shapes, and the settling velocity becomes smaller.

Dynamic Characterization of Thermocouples under Double-Pulse Laser-Induced Thermal Excitation.

This study investigated the dynamic characteristics of thermocouples by using double-pulse laser excitation for dynamic temperature calibration under extreme conditions. An experimental device was constructed for double-pulse laser calibration; the device uses a digital pulse delay trigger to precisely control the double-pulse laser to achieve sub-microsecond dual temperature excitation with adjustable time intervals. The time constants of thermocouples under single-pulse laser excitation and double-pulse laser excitation were evaluated.

Near-Wall Settling Behavior of a Particle in Stratified Fluids.

The phenomenon of near-wall particle settling in a stratified fluid is an emerging topic in the field of multiphase flow, and it is also widely found in nature and engineering applications. In stratified fluids, particle settling characteristics are affected by the physical and chemical properties of the upper and lower fluids, the particle size, the particle density, and the initial sedimentation conditions. In this study, the main objective is to determine the effect of liquid viscosity and particle density on the detaching process, and the trajectory and velocity of near-wall settling particles in stratified fluids.

Numerical Study of Nanoparticle Deposition in a Gaseous Microchannel under the Influence of Various Forces.

Nanoparticle deposition in microchannel devices inducing contaminant clogging is a serious barrier to the application of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). For micro-scale gas flow fields with a high Knudsen number () in the microchannel, gas rarefaction and velocity slip cannot be ignored. Furthermore, the mechanism of nanoparticle transport and deposition in the microchannel is extremely complex.

Virtual-Wall Model for Molecular Dynamics Simulation.

A large number of molecules are usually required to model atomic walls in molecular dynamics simulations. A virtual-wall model is proposed in this study to describe fluid-wall molecular interactions, for reducing the computational time. The infinite repetition of unit cell structures within the atomic wall causes the periodicity of the force acting on a fluid molecule from the wall molecules.