Sprecher
Beschreibung
Soft and wet contact arises in a range of phenomena that spans many length and time
scales, and includes: landslides, aquaplaning of tires, wear of industrial bearings, ageing of
synovial and cartilaginous joints, cell motion in blood vessels or microfluidic devices, and
atomic-force or surface-force rheology. Therein, the coupling between boundary elasticity
and confined viscous flow leads to a striking zoology of counterintuitive emergent effects.
From the canonical situation of a free particle that can simultaneously sediment, slide,
and roll in a viscous fluid, and near a soft wall, we study a range of novel inertial-like
(despite the low-Reynolds-number flow) features, such as: enhanced sedimentation, elas-
tohydrodynamic bouncing, roll reversal, emergent lift and torque, dynamical adhesive-like
forces.