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Droplet moonwalking

The unusual motion of magnetic droplets across a smooth hydrophobic substrate within a perpendicular rotating magnetic field

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Abstract

The accelerations of sessile, viscous ferrofluid droplets across a flat, smooth hydrophobic substrate, due to surface deformations induced by a perpendicularly rotating magnetic field, are investigated with coupled finite element/boundary element computer simulations. For moderate field strengths, monotonically increasing relationships are found between acceleration and both magnetic field strength and inverse viscosity, with maxima at a rotation frequency approximately one-third that of the natural harmonic of the droplet. At higher field strengths a variety of more extreme droplet rolling, bounding and jumping behaviour in the opposite travel direction is observed for the same range of rotation speeds.

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  1. Department of Mathematics, Warwick University, Coventry, CV4 8UW, UK

    Alastair J. Radcliffe

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  1. Alastair J. Radcliffe
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Radcliffe, A.J. Droplet moonwalking. Engineering with Computers 38 (Suppl 4), 3099–3109 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00366-021-01434-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00366-021-01434-3

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