Translational and rotational motion of disk-shaped Marangoni surfers

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-1-2019

Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

Abstract

In this paper, we study the Marangoni propulsion of a neutrally buoyant disk-shaped object at the air-water interface. Self-propulsion was achieved by coating the back of the disk with either soap or isopropyl alcohol in order to generate and then maintain a surface tension gradient across the surfer. As the propulsion strength and the resulting disk velocity were increased, a transition from a straight-line translational motion to a rotational motion was observed. Although spinning had been observed before for asymmetric objects, these are the first observations of spinning of a geometrically axisymmetric Marangoni surfer. Particle tracking and particle image velocimetry measurements were used to interrogate the resulting flow field and understand the origin of the rotational motion of the disk. These measurements showed that as the Reynolds number was increased, interfacial vortices attached to sides of the disk were formed and intensified. Beyond a critical Reynolds number of Re > 120, a vortex was observed to shed resulting in an unbalanced torque on the disk that caused it to rotate. The interaction between the disk and the confining wall of the Petri dish was also studied. Upon approaching the bounding wall, a transition from straight-line motion to rotational motion was observed at significantly lower Reynolds numbers than on an unconfined interface. Interfacial curvature was found to either enhance or eliminate rotational motion depending on whether the curvature was repulsive (concave) or attractive (convex).

Publication Title

Physics of Fluids

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