Statics and dynamics of fluids in nanotubes

The purpose of this article is to study the statics and dynamics of nanotubes by using the methods of continuum mechanics. The nanotube can be filled with only a liquid or a vapour phase according to the physicochemical characteristics of the wall and to the disjoining pressure associated with the liquid and vapour mother bulks of the fluid, regardless of the nature of the external mother bulk. In dynamics, flows through nanotubes can be much more important than classical Poiseuille flows. When the external mother bulk is of vapour, the flow can be a million times larger than the classical flows when slippage on wall does not exist.Comment: 20 page

Continuum mechanics at nanoscale. A tool to study trees' watering and recovery

The cohesion-tension theory expounds the crude sap ascent thanks to the negative pressure generated by evaporation of water from leaves. Nevertheless, trees pose multiple challenges and seem to live in unphysical conditions: the negative pressure increases cavitation; it is possible to obtain a water equilibrium between connected parts where one is at a positive pressure and the other one is at negative pressure; no theory is able to satisfactorily account for the refilling of vessels after embolism events. A theoretical form of our paper in the Journal of Theoretical Biology is proposed together with new results: a continuum mechanics model of the disjoining pressure concept refers to the Derjaguin School of physical chemistry. A comparison between liquid behaviour both in tight-filled microtubes and in liquid thin-films is offered when the pressure is negative in liquid bulks and is positive in liquid thin-films and vapour bulks. In embolized xylem microtubes, when the air-vapour pocket pressure is greater than the air-vapour bulk pressure, a refilling flow occurs between the air-vapour domains to empty the air-vapour pockets although the liquid-bulk pressure remains negative. The model has a limit of validity taking the maximal size of trees into account. These results drop inkling that the disjoining pressure is an efficient tool to study biological liquids in contact with substrates at a nanoscale range.Comment: The paper is a review and overlap of my different papers about the watering of trees as a mathematical development of my paper in The Journal of Theoretical Biology. These results are presented together with new researches: transfer of liquid water and vapour between xylem microtubes, an explanation of ultrasounds generated in the watering network considered as sound pipes, numerical calculations of flows in thin liquid films and of Poiseuille flows in xylem microtubes, an estimation of the velocity for the ascent of crude sap and of the recovery time of trees during the spring perio

Motions in liquid-vapour interfaces by using a continuous mechanical model

By using a limit analysis for the motion equations of viscous fluid endowed with internal capillarity, we are able to propose a dynamical expression for the surface tension of moving liquid-vapour interfaces without any phenomenological assumption. The proposed relation extends the static case, yields the Laplace formula in cases of mass transfer across interfacial layers and allows to take the second coefficient of viscosity of compressible fluids into account. We generalize the Maxwell rule in dynamics and directly explain the Marangoni effect.Comment: 15 page

A mechanical model for liquid nanolayers

Liquids in contact with solids are submitted to intermolecular forces making liquids heterogeneous and stress tensors are not any more spherical as in homogeneous bulks. The aim of this article is to show that a square-gradient functional representing liquid-vapor interface free energy corrected with a liquid density functional at solid surfaces is a well adapted model to study structures of very thin nanofilms near solid walls. This result makes it possible to study the motions of liquids in nanolayers and to generalize the approximation of lubrication in long wave hypothesis.Comment: 10 page

Multi-gradient fluids

An internal energy function of the mass density, the volumetric entropy and their gradients at n-order generates the representation of multi-gradient fluids. Thanks to Hamilton's principle, we obtain a thermodynamical form of the equation of motion which generalizes the case of perfect compressible fluids. First integrals of flows are extended cases of perfect compressible fluids. The equation of motion and the equation of energy are written for dissipative cases, and are compatible with the second law of thermodynamics.Comment: Ricerche di matematica, Springer Verlag, In pres

Interfaces endowed with non-constant surface energies revisited with the d'Alembert-Lagrange principle

The equation of motions and the conditions on surfaces and edges between fluids and solids in presence of non-constant surface energies, as in the case of surfactants attached to the fluid particles at the interfaces, are revisited under the principle of virtual work. We point out that adequate behaviors of surface concentrations may drastically modify the surface tension which naturally appears in the Laplace and the Young-Dupr\'e equations. Thus, the principle of virtual work points out a strong difference between the two revisited concepts of surface energy and surface tension.Comment: 20 page