711 research outputs found
Deformation of a flexible fiber in a viscous flow past an obstacle
We study the deformation and transport of elastic fibers in a viscous
Hele-Shaw flow with curved streamlines. The variations of the global velocity
and orientation of the fiber follow closely those of the local flow velocity.
The ratios of the curvatures of the fibers by the corresponding curvatures of
the streamlines reflect a balance between elastic and viscous forces: this
ratio is shown experimentally to be determined by a dimensionless {\it Sperm
number} combining the characteristic parameters of the flow (transverse
velocity gradient, viscosity, fiber diameter/cell gap ratio) and those of the
fiber (diameter, effective length, Young's modulus). For short fibers, the
effective length is that of the fiber; for long ones, it is equal to the
transverse characteristic length of the flow. For , the
ratio of the curvatures increases linearly with ; For ,
the fiber reaches the same curvature as the streamlines
Influence of humidity on granular packings with moving walls
A significant dependence on the relative humidity H for the apparent mass
(Mapp) measured at the bottom of a granular packing inside a vertical tube in
relative motion is demonstrated experimentally. While the predictions of
Janssen's model are verified for all values of H investigated (25%< H <80%),
Mapp increases with time towards a limiting value at high relative humidities
(H>60%) but remains constant at lower ones (H=25%). The corresponding Janssen
length is nearly independent of the tube velocity for H>60% but decreases
markedly for H=25%. Other differences are observed on the motion of individual
beads in the packing. For H=25%, they are almost motionless while the mean
particle fraction of the packing remains constant; for H>60% the bead motion is
much more significant and the mean particle fraction decreases. The dependence
of these results on the bead diameter and their interpretation in terms of the
influence of capillary forces are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Traffic jams and intermittent flows in microfluidic networks
We investigate both experimentally and theoretically the traffic of particles
flowing in microfluidic obstacle networks. We show that the traffic dynamics is
a non-linear process: the particle current does not scale with the particle
density even in the dilute limit where no particle collision occurs. We
demonstrate that this non-linear behavior stems from long range hydrodynamic
interactions. Importantly, we also establish that there exists a maximal
current above which no stationary particle flow can be sustained. For higher
current values, intermittent traffic jams form thereby inducing the ejection of
the particles from the initial path and the subsequent invasion of the network.
Eventually, we put our findings in the broader context of the transport
proccesses of driven particles in low dimension
Experimental and numerical investigations of flow structure and momentum transport in a turbulent buoyancy-driven flow inside a tilted tube.
Buoyancy-driven turbulent mixing of fluids of slightly different densities [At = Δρ/(2〈ρ〉) = 1.15×10−2] in a long circular tube tilted at an angle θ = 15° from the vertical is studied at the local scale, both experimentally from particle image velocimetry and laser induced fluorescence measurements in the vertical diametrical plane and numerically throughout the tube using direct numerical simulation. In a given cross section of the tube, the axial mean velocity and the mean concentration both vary linearly with the crosswise distance z from the tube axis in the central 70% of the diameter. A small crosswise velocity component is detected in the measurement plane and is found to result from a four-cell mean secondary flow associated with a nonzero streamwise component of the vorticity. In the central region of the tube cross section, the intensities of the three turbulent velocity fluctuations are found to be strongly different, that of the streamwise fluctuation being more than twice larger than that of the spanwise fluctuation which itself is about 50% larger than that of the crosswise fluctuation. This marked anisotropy indicates that the turbulent structure is close to that observed in homogeneous turbulent shear flows. Still in the central region, the turbulent shear stress dominates over the viscous stress and reaches a maximum on the tube axis. Its crosswise variation is approximately accounted for by a mixing length whose value is about one-tenth of the tube diameter. The momentum exchange in the core of the cross section takes place between its lower and higher density parts and there is no net momentum exchange between the core and the near-wall regions. A sizable part of this transfer is due both to the mean secondary flow and to the spanwise turbulent shear stress. Near-wall regions located beyond the location of the extrema of the axial velocity (|z|≳0.36 d) are dominated by viscous stresses which transfer momentum toward (from) the wall near the top (bottom) of the tube
Influence of flow confinement on the drag force on a static cylinder
The influence of confinement on the drag force on a static cylinder in a
viscous flow inside a rectangular slit of aperture has been investigated
from experimental measurements and numerical simulations. At low enough
Reynolds numbers, varies linearly with the mean velocity and the viscosity,
allowing for the precise determination of drag coefficients and
corresponding respectively to a mean flow parallel and
perpendicular to the cylinder length . In the parallel configuration, the
variation of with the normalized diameter of the
cylinder is close to that for a 2D flow invariant in the direction of the
cylinder axis and does not diverge when . The variation of
with the distance from the midplane of the model reflects the
parabolic Poiseuille profile between the plates for while it
remains almost constant for . In the perpendicular configuration,
the value of is close to that corresponding to a 2D system
only if and/or if the clearance between the ends of the cylinder
and the side walls is very small: in that latter case,
diverges as due to the blockage of the flow. In other cases, the
side flow between the ends of the cylinder and the side walls plays an
important part to reduce : a full 3D description of the flow is
needed to account for these effects
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Basal rot of narcissus : understanding pathogenicity in fusarium oxysporum f. sp. narcissi
Fusarium oxysporum is a globally distributed soilborne fungal pathogen causing root rots, bulb rots, crown rots and vascular wilts on a range of horticultural plants. Pathogenic F. oxysporum isolates are highly host specific and are classified as formae speciales. Narcissus is an important ornamental crop and both the quality and yield of flowers and bulbs can be severely affected by a basal rot caused by F. oxysporum f. sp. narcissi (FON); 154 Fusarium isolates were obtained from different locations and Narcissus cultivars in the United Kingdom, representing a valuable resource. A subset of 30 F. oxysporum isolates were all found to be pathogenic and were therefore identified as FON. Molecular characterisation of isolates through sequencing of three housekeeping genes, suggested a monophyletic origin with little divergence. PCR detection of 14 Secreted in Xylem (SIX) genes, previously shown to be associated with pathogenicity in other F. oxysporum f. spp., revealed different complements of SIX7, SIX9, SIX10, SIX12 and SIX13 within FON isolates which may suggest a race structure. SIX gene sequences were unique to FON and SIX10 was present in all isolates, allowing for molecular identification of FON for the first time. The genome of a highly pathogenic isolate was sequenced and lineage specific (LS) regions identified which harboured putative effectors including the SIX genes. Real-time RT-PCR, showed that SIX genes and selected putative effectors were expressed in planta with many significantly upregulated during infection. This is the first study to characterise molecular variation in FON and provide an analysis of the FON genome. Identification of expressed genes potentially associated with virulence provides the basis for future functional studies and new targets for molecular diagnostics
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