Tue November 9th 2010
16:00
ZH286
Journal Club The "Cheerios effect"
Ceyda Sanlı

Details:

Objects floating at a fluid-fluid interface interact because of the interfacial deformation and the effect of the gravity. The wetting property and the density of the objects tune the interaction strength and the direction such that the interaction could be repulsive or attractive. You can make the analogy between the name of this phenomenon (The "Cheerios effect") and breakfast cereals floating in milk by performing a simple experiment (We can perform a much cleaner experiment together.).

In this talk, we will start modeling this interaction by considering two infinite plates made by a certain wetting or non-wetting material. Then, we will discuss the scenario for floating objects. The importance of the paper is stating the role of the gravity explicitly, and by this way, it clarifies the common misunderstanding in the literature about the direction of the interaction among floating objects.




Dominic Vella and L. Mahadevan, The “Cheerios effect”, Am. J. Phys. 73 (9), 817-825 (2005).
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