2014/10/31 by Rujeko Chinomona, Janelle Lajeunesse, William H. Mitchell +3 · 13 citations
Chemistry · Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #Chemical physics #Chemistry #Classical mechanics #Computer science #Condensed matter physics #Dimensionless quantity #Dipole #Dynamics (music) #Ferromagnetism #Instability #Magnetic field #Measure (data warehouse) #Mechanics #Micro and Nano Robotics #Physics #Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization #Quantum mechanics #Soft matter #Stability (learning theory) #Statistical physics #cond-mat.soft #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.1039/c4sm02189d
published in Soft Matter 11(9), 1828-1838 (Royal Society of Chemistry)
arxiv created 2014/12/16 · openalex publication_date 2015/01/01 · arxiv updated 2015/04/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Recent experiments have shown that floating ferromagnetic beads, under the influence of an oscillating background magnetic field, can move along a liquid-air interface in a sustained periodic locomotion [Lumay et al., Soft Matter, 2013, 9, 2420]. Dynamic activity arises from a periodically induced dipole-dipole repulsion between the beads acting in concert with capillary attraction. We investigate analytically and numerically the stability and dynamics of this magnetocapillary swimming, and explore other related topics including the steady and periodic equilibrium configurations of two and three beads, and bead collisions. The swimming speed and system stability depend on a dimensionless measure of the relative repulsive and attractive forces which we term the magnetocapillary number. An oscillatory magnetic field may stabilize an otherwise unstable collinear configuration, and striking behaviors are observed in fast transitions to and from locomotory states, offering insight into the behavior and self-assembly of interface-bound micro-particles.