Fluid dynamics articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Collective behavior of nonlinear soft valves forming fluid flow networks is not well understood. The authors reveal the mechanisms underlying the collective behavior of soft flow networks with negative differential resistance elements.

    • Alejandro Martínez-Calvo
    • , Matthew D. Biviano
    •  & Miguel Ruiz-García

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Earlier research has shown that controlling activity in the active matter can lead to either a phase change or a laminar-turbulent transition in active fluids. Authors demonstrate that it is possible to control both the phase transitions between solid, liquid, and gas states and the laminar-to-turbulent transitions in fluid phases by adjusting the activity of a phoretic medium.

    • Qianhong Yang
    • , Maoqiang Jiang
    •  & Lailai Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Porosity is a key issue in additive manufacturing (AM). Here, the authors reveal the bubble evolution mechanisms including formation, coalescence, pushing, growth, entrainment, escape, and entrapment during directed energy deposition AM using in situ X-ray imaging and multiphysics modelling.

    • Kai Zhang
    • , Yunhui Chen
    •  & Peter D. Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    For an active particle to be able to swim in a low-Reynolds number flow, breaking of time-reversal symmetry and centrosymmetry is required. Typically, this is achieved through asymmetric characteristics of the swimmer. Now, swimming of centrosymmetric pulsating bubbles in an anisotropic fluid is reported.

    • Sung-Jo Kim
    • , Žiga Kos
    •  & Joonwoo Jeong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Generating microfluidic droplets with application-specific desired characteristics is hard. Here the authors report fluid-agnostic machine learning models capable of accurately predicting device geometries and flow conditions required to generate stable single and double emulsions.

    • Ali Lashkaripour
    • , David P. McIntyre
    •  & Polly M. Fordyce

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pumping fluids at small scales near fluid-fluid interfaces remains challenging. Pandey et al. present a pump that drives interfacial flow by traveling waves on a deformable boundary.

    • Anupam Pandey
    • , Zih-Yin Chen
    •  & Sunghwan Jung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    When a low-viscosity fluid displaces into a higher viscosity fluid, the liquid-liquid interface becomes unstable causing finger-like patterns. These patterns are usually observed in two fluids, but here Kim et al. describes the development of fingers in a single polyelectrolyte fluid adjacent to a charge-selective interface under the influence of a potential gradient.

    • Jeonghwan Kim
    • , Joonhyeon Kim
    •  & Rhokyun Kwak

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The relation between the rebound behavior of droplets and surface structure is crucial to regulating the surface dynamic wettability based on structure design. Zhao et al. explore droplet rebound numbers when the droplet impacts laser-ablated microstructures with different structure spaces and report that droplets can consecutively rebound 17 times.

    • Shengteng Zhao
    • , Zhichao Ma
    •  & Luquan Ren

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In adverse weather, small-scale modern aircraft can encounter severe turbulence in urban canyons and mountainous areas hindering stable flight. The authors use machine learning to reveal the low-dimensional manifold that captures the extreme aerodynamics of gust-airfoil interactions.

    • Kai Fukami
    •  & Kunihiko Taira

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Boiling, despite being a well-known phenomenon still lacks an understanding of its multiscale and non-equilibrium nature. Using the stochastic mesoscale model based on fluctuating hydrodynamics and diffuse interface approach Gallo et al. describe the process of boiling from nucleation to macroscopic bubble dynamics.

    • Mirko Gallo
    • , Francesco Magaletti
    •  & Carlo Massimo Casciola

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Concentration polarization electroosmosis (CPEO) has recently been found to produce similar flow patterns around spheres in an AC electric field as induced charge electroosmosis. Katzmeier and Simmel study the flow around the asymmetric particle dimers caused by CPEO and design a microrobot that can be steered with a joystick and facilitates the transport of cargo particles.

    • Florian Katzmeier
    •  & Friedrich C. Simmel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The topologically robust generation of acoustic spatiotemporal vortex pulses is reported by utilizing mirror- symmetry breaking meta-gratings, which paves the way for exploring spatiotemporal structured waves in acoustics and beyond.

    • Hongliang Zhang
    • , Yeyang Sun
    •  & Zhichao Ruan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Light-induced bubble maneuvering remains challenging in terms of response and functional adaptability due to the single driving mechanism including the Marangoni effect or asymmetrical deformation. Using a photopyroelectric slippery surface (PESS), Liu et al. demonstrate the splitting, merging, and detachment of underwater bubbles with high flexibility and precision.

    • Haiyang Zhan
    • , Zichao Yuan
    •  & Yahua Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    What is the physical limit on entropy production in a suspension of active microswimmers? In answer to this question, the authors derive a general theorem that provides an exact lower bound on the total, external and internal dissipation by a microswimmer and apply it to optimize swimmer shapes.

    • Abdallah Daddi-Moussa-Ider
    • , Ramin Golestanian
    •  & Andrej Vilfan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soil-liquefaction is a catastrophic seismic hazard, usually attributed to poor drainage. Here the authors show that liquefaction driven by fluid drainage explains puzzling triggering far from the earthquake source, where shaking is less energetic

    • Shahar Ben-Zeev
    • , Liran Goren
    •  & Einat Aharonov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Capillary breakup in multimaterial fibers is explored for the self-assembly of optoelectronic systems. However, its insights primarily stem from numerical simulations, qualitative at best. The authors formulate an analytical model of such breakup, obtaining a window in the governing parameters where the generally chaotic breakup becomes predictable and thus engineerable.

    • Camila Faccini de Lima
    • , Fan Wang
    •  & Alexander Gumennik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kinetic energy put into a granular medium as a collective is typically dissipated as friction. The situation is different when forces are applied to the individual particles. An experiment now shows that when torques are applied to particles in a dense bed of microrollers, the grains roll uphill.

    • Samuel R. Wilson-Whitford
    • , Jinghui Gao
    •  & James F. Gilchrist

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mechanisms by which aquatic animals optimize their tailbeat frequency for swimming have not been fully explained. Here, the authors propose scaling laws for undulatory swimmers, relating beat frequency to length considering muscle biology and fluid interaction.

    • Jesús Sánchez-Rodríguez
    • , Christophe Raufaste
    •  & Médéric Argentina

  • Article
    | Open Access

    So far, attempts to prevent droplet rebound rely on augmenting energy dissipation. Here, the authors present that the rebound of hollow droplets is suppressed even on super-repellent surfaces, reminiscent of zero-surface-tension liquid droplets.

    • Ying Zhou
    • , Chenguang Zhang
    •  & Pingan Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Knowledge of atmospheric turbulence strength at various distances is critical for the development of effective solutions for turbulence mitigation. Here, authors demonstrate how to probe the distribution of turbulence strength along a propagation path with multiple longitudinally structured optical beams

    • Huibin Zhou
    • , Xinzhou Su
    •  & Alan E. Willner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Turbulent pair dispersion is relevant for mixing processes such as microplastics transport in the ocean or dynamics of water droplets in clouds. The authors present a geometrical framework and empirical evidence that elucidate the universality of the process across scales, while forming a bridge with the classical Richardson theory.

    • Ron Shnapp
    • , Stefano Brizzolara
    •  & Markus Holzner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hydrodynamically coupled rotors can be used to describe interactions ranging from molecular machines to atmospheric dynamics. Modin et al. show that optically-driven rotors in a non-tweezing beam can freely diffuse while spinning asynchronously and develop an analytical hydrodynamic model to explain.

    • Alvin Modin
    • , Matan Yah Ben Zion
    •  & Paul M. Chaikin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unwanted vapor backflow and chaotic two-phase flow patterns can hinder thermal transport performance in their respective systems. Here, the authors revisit the classic Tesla valve design and demonstrate a Tesla valve-based thermal regulator with capillary structures that can suppress vapor backflow and achieve directional two-phase flow.

    • Wenming Li
    • , Siyan Yang
    •  & Zuankai Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Droplets and sharp interfaces at supercritical pressures are interpreted as evidence of surface tension due to phase equilibria in mixtures, given the lack of a supercritical liquid-vapor phase equilibrium in pure fluids. Authors show from first principles and simulations that, unlike in gases or liquids, stable droplets, bubbles, and planar interfaces can exist without surface tension.

    • N. P. Longmire
    • , S. L. Showalter
    •  & D. T. Banuti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Liquid metals are widely used in flexible electronics and soft robotics applications, but their adhesion to underlying solid substrates is unwanted. Dai et al. show that liquid metal droplets can overcome adhesion forces and bounce off from the surface covered with a water film with sufficient thickness.

    • Yuhang Dai
    • , Minfei Li
    •  & Zuankai Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fingering patterns form spontaneously when a non-wetting viscous liquid displaces a dry granular mixture in a confined flow cell. The authors show how these patterns are controlled by the balance between viscous, capillary, and frictional forces.

    • Dawang Zhang
    • , James M. Campbell
    •  & Bjørnar Sandnes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Boiling crisis is a physical phenomenon limiting the operation of many technologies cooled by boiling. Zhang et al. reveal theoretically and experimentally the existence of a unifying criterion to explain and predict the boiling crisis.

    • Limiao Zhang
    • , Chi Wang
    •  & Matteo Bucci

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study shows that the total energy loss of gravity currents has a non-linear dependence on the work required to keep sediment in suspension, highlighting the importance of large-scale mixing for the particulate transport of gravity currents.

    • Sojiro Fukuda
    • , Marijke G. W. de Vet
    •  & Robert M. Dorrell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Based on two high-resolution simulations, the authors find that submesoscale eddies significantly boost poleward oceanic heat transport in Antarctic waters by strengthening transport capability of mesoscale eddies through inverse energy cascade.

    • Zhiwei Zhang
    • , Yuelin Liu
    •  & Jiwei Tian

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active field theories are powerful tools to explain phenomena such as motility-induced phase separation. The authors report an active analogue to the quantum mechanics tunneling effect, showing similarity to the Schrödinger equation, by introducing an extended model applicable to active particles with inertia.

    • Michael te Vrugt
    • , Tobias Frohoff-Hülsmann
    •  & Raphael Wittkowski

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding how foams destabilize is key for developing applications. Experiments with foamed oil-in-water emulsions now show that bubble size evolution can be controlled by varying the continuous phase elastic modulus, exploiting the interplay between a foam’s structure and mechanical properties.

    • Chiara Guidolin
    • , Jonatan Mac Intyre
    •  & Anniina Salonen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sharpshooters can catapult their droplet excreta with a speed faster than their own movement speed. Challita et al. find that superpropulsion is achieved by the temporal tuning between the droplet and the stylus.

    • Elio J. Challita
    • , Prateek Sehgal
    •  & M. Saad Bhamla

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bubbles at an air-liquid interface will rupture when their spherical cap becomes sufficiently drained. It is now shown that the film thickness of large bare viscous bubbles is highly non-uniformly distributed, and that a bubble’s thickness profile relates to its drainage velocity.

    • Casey Bartlett
    • , Alexandros T. Oratis
    •  & James C. Bird

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Electrohydrodynamic features of dust storm turbulence have puzzled scientists for over a hundred years. Here, the authors reveal the characteristics of the multifield spectra in dust storms using a combined observational and theoretical approach.

    • Huan Zhang
    •  & You-He Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tanner’s law describes the spreading dynamics of droplets made of Newtonian viscous fluids. Here, the authors demonstrate that this law remains valid for phase-separated binary liquids close to their critical point, and thus for all the associated universality class.

    • Raphael Saiseau
    • , Christian Pedersen
    •  & Jean-Pierre Delville

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding the behaviors of droplets at nanoscales is crucial to many applications, yet it remains experimentally challenging to track them in real time. Here, Sbarra et al. use a miniature optomechanical resonator to probe the evaporation dynamics of attoliter droplets with millisecond resolution.

    • Samantha Sbarra
    • , Louis Waquier
    •  & Ivan Favero

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