Tag: Viscoelasticity
Reciprocal flapping produces motion in viscoelastic granular hydrogels
What the study found A scallop-like swimmer with reciprocally flapping wings could move through a nearly frictionless, cohesive granular medium made of hydrogel spheres when its flapping frequency matched the material's inverse relaxation time. The swimmer moved in the opposite direction from how it moved in a cohesion-free granular material of hard plastic spheres. Why…
Viscoelastic droplets show an elasto-viscous coalescence regime
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in EngineeringWhat the study found The study found a transition from an elasticity-dominated regime to an elasto-viscous regime in the coalescence of concentrated polymer droplets. Why the authors say this matters The authors conclude that these results advance understanding of droplet coalescence and highlight the role of viscoelastic effects in complex fluids. The study suggests that…