We present a theoretical analysis of frictional transitions along the Stribeck curve for rough elastic contacts lubricated by a Newtonian fluid. Building on the mean-field framework of Persson and Scaraggi (J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 21 (2009) 185002), we formulate a minimal elastohydrodynamic model that couples contact mechanics and lubrication through a homogenized pressure decomposition. Dimensional analysis reveals three independent dimensionless parameters governing the frictional response, which correspond to a dimensionless speed, normal load, and surface roughness.
Using asymptotic expansions, we first characterize the boundary and hydrodynamic lubrication regimes, which arise naturally as the quasistatic and smooth-surface limits of the model. In both limits, the contact morphology converges toward Hertzian contact in the regime of large elastic deformation, with boundary layers regularizing the separation profile at the edge of the contact zone.
We then analyze the mixed lubrication regime and derive asymptotic expressions for the friction coefficient in the low- and high-speed limits. At high speeds, friction decomposes into a viscous contribution and a residual contact term, leading to a roughness- and load-dependent criterion for the transition to hydrodynamic lubrication that departs from constant-Λ ratio theories. At low speeds, friction reduction results from the progressive redistribution of the applied load between asperity contact and hydrodynamic pressure, yielding a characteristic transition speed from boundary to mixed lubrication. These results are summarized in a phase diagram that generalizes the classical Stribeck curve to a multidimensional parameter space.
We study how hydrodynamic interactions affect the collective behaviour of active particles suspended in a fluid at high concentrations, with particular attention to lubrication forces which appear when the particles are very close to one another. We compute exactly the limiting behaviour of the hydrodynamic interactions between two spherical (circular) active swimmers in very close proximity to one another in the general setting in both three and (two) dimensions. Combining this with far-field interactions, we develop a novel numerical scheme which allows us to study the collective behaviour o…
This work presents an intermediate resolution model of the hydrodynamics of colloidal particles based on a mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian formulation. The particle is constructed with a small set of overlapping Peskin's Immersed Boundary kernels (blobs) which are held together by springs to build up a particle impenetrable core. Here, we used 12 blobs placed in the vertexes of an icosahedron with an extra one in its center. Although the particle surface is not explicitly resolved, we show that the short-distance hydrodynamic responses (flow profiles, translational and rotational mobilities, lubrica…
We characterize the spatiotemporal deformation of an elastic film during the radial drainage of fluid from a narrowing gap. Elastic deformation of the film takes the form of a dimple and prevents full contact to be reached. With thinner elastic film the stress becomes increasingly supported by the underlying rigid substrate and the dimple formation is suppressed, which allows the surfaces to reach full contact. We highlight the lag due to viscoelasticity on the surface profiles, and that for a given fluid film thickness deformation leads to stronger hydrodynamic forces than for rigid surfaces.
Plane Poiseuille flow past a nanoscale cylinder that is arbitrarily confined (i.e., symmetrically or asymmetrically confined) in a slit channel is studied via hydrodynamic lubrication theory and molecular dynamics simulations, considering cases where the cylinder remains static or undergoes thermal motion. Lubrication theory predictions for the drag force and volumetric flow rate are in close agreement with molecular dynamics simulations of flows having molecularly thin lubrication gaps, despite the presence of significant structural forces induced by the crystalline structure of the modeled s…
Electrowetting (EW) of water drops in ambient oil has found a wide range of applications including lab-on-a-chip devices, display screens, and variable focus lenses. The efficacy of all these applications is dependent on the contact angle hysteresis (CAH), which is generally reduced in the presence of ambient oil due to thin lubrication layers. While it is well-known that AC voltage reduces the effective contact angle hysteresis (CAH) for EW in ambient air, we demonstrate here that CAH for EW in ambient oil increases with increasing AC and DC voltage. Taking into account the disjoining pressur…
Hydrodynamic interaction strongly influences the collective behavior of the microswimmers. With this work, we study the behavior of two hydrodynamically interacting self-propelled chiral swimmers in the low Reynolds number regime, considering both the near and far-field interactions. We use the chiral squirmer model, a spherically shaped body with non-axisymmetric surface slip velocity, which generalizes the well-known squirmer model. We calculate the lubrication force between the swimmers when they are very close to each other. By varying the slip coefficients and the initial configuration of…
A numerical model is used to simulate rheometer experiments at constant normal stress on dense suspensions of spheres. The complete model includes sphere-sphere contacts using a soft contact approach, short range hydrodynamic interactions defined by frame-invariant expressions of forces and torques in the lubrication approximation, and drag forces resulting from the poromechanical coupling computed with the DEM-PFV technique. Series of simulations in which some of the coupling terms are neglected highlight the role of the poromechanical coupling in the transient regimes. They also reveal that …
The dynamic of contact formation between soft materials immersed in a fluid is accompanied by fluid drainage and elastic deformation. As a result, controlling the coupling between lubrication pressure and elasticity provides strategies to design materials with reversible and dynamic adhesion to wet or flooded surfaces. We characterize the elastic deformation of a soft coating with nanometer-scale roughness as it approaches and contacts a rigid surface in a fluid environment. The lubrication pressure during the approach causes elastic deformation and prevents contact formation. We observe defor…
In this article we develop a theoretical framework to study the hydrodynamic interactions in the presence of a non-flat and no-slip boundary. We calculate the influence of a small amplitude and sinusoidal deformations of a boundary wall in the self mobility and the two body hydrodynamic interactions for spherical particles. We show that the surface roughness enhances the self mobility of a sphere in a way that, for motion in front of a local hump of the surface, the mobility strength decreases while it increases for the motion above a local deep of the rough surface. The influence of the surfa…
Self-propelled particles have been experimentally shown to orbit spherical obstacles and move along surfaces. Here, we theoretically and numerically investigate this behavior for a hydrodynamic squirmer interacting with spherical objects and flat walls using three different methods of approximately solving the Stokes equations: The method of reflections, which is accurate in the far field; lubrication theory, which describes the close-to-contact behavior; and a lattice Boltzmann solver that accurately accounts for near-field flows. The method of reflections predicts three distinct behaviors: o…
Patterned surfaces with large effective slip lengths, such as super-hydrophobic surfaces containing trapped gas bubbles, have the potential to reduce hydrodynamic drag. Based on lubrication theory, we analyze an approach of a hydrophilic disk to such a surface. The drag force is predicted analytically and formulated in terms of a correction function to the Reynolds equation, which is shown to be the harmonic mean of corrections expressed through effective slip lengths in the two principal (fastest and slowest) orthogonal directions. The reduction of drag is especially pronounced for a thin (co…
Elastic deformation of rigid materials with soft coatings (stratified materials) due to lubrication forces can also alter the interpretation of dynamic surface forces measurements and prevent contact formation between approaching surfaces. Understanding the role of elastic deformation on the process of fluid drainage is necessary, and the case where one (or both) of the interacting materials consists of a rigid substrate with a soft coating is still limited. We combine lubrication theory and solid linear elasticity to describe the dynamic of fluid drainage past a compliant stratified boundary.…
The hydrodynamic slippage at a solid-liquid interface is currently at the center of our understanding of fluid mechanics. For hundreds of years this science has relied upon no-slip boundary conditions at the solid-liquid interface that has been applied successfully to model many macroscopic experiments, and the state of this interface has played a minor role in determining the flow. However, the problem is not that simple and has been revisited recently. Due to the change in the properties of the interface, such as wettability and roughness, this classical boundary condition could be violated,…
We discuss how the wettability and roughness of a solid impacts its hydrodynamic properties. We see in particular that hydrophobic slippage can be dramatically affected by the presence of roughness. Owing to the development of refined methods for setting very well-controlled micro- or nanotextures on a solid, these effects are being exploited to induce novel hydrodynamic properties, such as giant interfacial slip, superfluidity, mixing, and low hydrodynamic drag, that could not be achieved without roughness.
We study the lubrication of fluid-immersed soft interfaces and show that elastic deformation couples tangential and normal forces and thus generates lift. We consider materials that deform easily, due to either geometry (e.g. a shell) or constitutive properties (e.g. a gel or a rubber), so that the effects of pressure and temperature on the fluid properties may be neglected. Four different system geometries are considered: a rigid cylinder moving parallel to a soft layer coating a rigid substrate; a soft cylinder moving parallel to a rigid substrate; a cylindrical shell moving parallel to a ri…
Motivated by the dynamics of microbubbles near catalytic surfaces in bubble-powered microrockets, we consider theoretically the growth of a free spherical bubble near a flat no-slip surface in a Stokes flow. The flow at the bubble surface is characterised by a constant slip length allowing to tune the hydrodynamic mobility of its surface and tackle in one formulation both clean and contaminated bubbles as well as rigid shells. Starting with a bubble of infinitesimal size, the fluid flow and hydrodynamic forces on the growing bubble are obtained analytically. We demonstrate that, depending on t…
An overview of computer simulations of tribology is presented. The chapter begins with a brief overview of simulation techniques and the special requirements for simulations of tribological processes. Then simple one-dimensional models of friction between crystalline surfaces are introduced to illustrate general features of friction, such as the importance of metastability and the effect of commensurability. Next two- and three-dimensional studies of dry sliding between crystalline surfaces are described, and compared to scanning probe experiments and measurements of the friction on adsorbed m…
We study the onset of friction for rough contacting blocks whose interface is coated with a thin lubrication layer. High speed measurements of the real contact area and stress fields near the interface reveal that propagating shear cracks mediate lubricated frictional motion. While lubricants reduce interface resistances, surprisingly, they significantly increase energy dissipated, $Γ$, during rupture. Moreover, lubricant viscosity affects the onset of friction but has no effect on $Γ$. Fracture mechanics provide a new way to view the otherwise hidden complex dynamics of the lubrication layer.
Understanding and harnessing the coupling between lubrication pressure and elasticity provides materials design strategies for applications such as adhesives, coatings, microsensors, and biomaterials. Elastic deformation of compliant solids caused by viscous forces can also occur during dynamic force measurements in instruments such as the surface forces apparatus (SFA) or the atomic force microscope (AFM). We briefly review hydrodynamic interactions in the presence of soft, deformable interfaces in the lubrication limit. More specifically, we consider the scenario of two surfaces approaching …
After colliding with a surface, microswimmers reside there during the detention time. They accumulate and may form complex structures such as biofilms. We introduce a general framework to calculate the distribution of detention times using the method of first-passage times and study how rotational noise and hydrodynamic interactions influence the escape from a surface. We compare generic swimmer models to the simple active Brownian particle. While the respective detention times of source dipoles are smaller, the ones of pullers are larger by up to several orders of magnitude, and pushers show …
We report results of lattice Boltzmann simulations of a high-speed drainage of liquid films squeezed between a smooth sphere and a randomly rough plane. A significant decrease in the hydrodynamic resistance force as compared with that predicted for two smooth surfaces is observed. However, this force reduction does not represent slippage. The computed force is exactly the same as that between equivalent smooth surfaces obeying no-slip boundary conditions, but located at an intermediate position between peaks and valleys of asperities. The shift in hydrodynamic thickness is shown to depend on t…
The spherical alga Volvox swims by means of flagella on thousands of surface somatic cells. This geometry and its large size make it a model organism for studying the fluid dynamics of multicellularity. Remarkably, when two nearby Volvox swim close to a solid surface, they attract one another and can form stable bound states in which they "waltz" or "minuet" around each other. A surface-mediated hydrodynamic attraction combined with lubrication forces between spinning, bottom-heavy Volvox explains the formation, stability and dynamics of the bound states. These phenomena are suggested to under…
A gas of inelastic rough spheres admits a spatially homogeneous base state which turns into a hydrodynamic state after a finite relaxation time. We show that this relaxation time is hardly dependent on the degree of inelasticity but increases dramatically with decreasing roughness. An accurate description of translational-rotational velocity correlations at all times is also provided. At a given inelasticity, the roughness parameter can be tuned to produce a huge distortion from the Maxwellian distribution function. The results are obtained from a Grad-like solution of the Boltzmann-Enskog equ…
Self-propelled particles can exhibit surprising non-equilibrium behaviors, and how they interact with obstacles or boundaries remains an important open problem. Here we show that chemically propelled micro-rods can be captured, with little change in their speed, into close orbits around solid spheres resting on or near a horizontal plane. We show that this interaction between sphere and particle is short-range, occurring even for spheres smaller than the particle length, and for a variety of sphere materials. We consider a simple model, based on lubrication theory, of a force- and torque-free …
Machine elements and mechanical components have often surfaces with anisotropic roughness, which may result from the machining processes, e.g. grinding, or from wear. Hence, it is important to understand how surface roughness anisotropy affects contact mechanics properties, such as friction and the interface separation, which is important for lubricated contacts. Here we extend and apply a multiscale mean-field model to the lubricated contact between a soft (e.g. rubber) elastic solid and a rigid countersurface. We consider surfaces with anisotropic surface roughness, and discuss how the fluid…
We study hydrodynamic slowing-down of a particle moving in a temperature gradient perpendicular to a wall. At distances much smaller than the particle radius, $h\ll a$, lubrication approximation leads to the reduced velocity $u/u_{0}=3\frac{h}{a}\ln \frac{a}{h}$, with respect to the bulk value $u_{0}$. With Brenner's result for confined diffusion, we find that the trapping efficiency, or effective Soret coefficient, increases logarithmically as the particle gets very close to the wall. This provides a quantitative explanation for the recently observed enhancement of thermophoretic trapping at …
Colloidal shear thickening presents a significant challenge because the macroscopic rheology becomes increasingly controlled by the microscopic details of short ranged particle interactions in the shear thickening regime. Our measurements here of the first normal stress difference over a wide range of particle volume fraction elucidate the relative contributions from hydrodynamic lubrication and frictional contact forces, which have been debated. At moderate volume fractions we find $N_1<0$, consistent with hydrodynamic models, however at higher volume fractions and shear stresses these models…
We investigate a possibility to regularize the hydrodynamic contact line singularity in the configuration of partial wetting (liquid wedge on a solid substrate) via evaporation-condensation, when an inert gas is present in the atmosphere above the liquid. The no-slip condition is imposed at the solid-liquid interface and the system is assumed to be isothermal. The mass exchange dynamics is controlled by vapor diffusion in the inert gas and interfacial kinetic resistance. The coupling between the liquid meniscus curvature and mass exchange is provided by the Kelvin effect. The atmosphere is sat…
We propose a method to parameterize a coarse grained model for the hydrodynamic friction between nearly touching rough spheres in suspension flows. The frictional resistance due to surface roughness primarily alters the sliding and rolling modes of motion of rough particles. Stokesian dynamics simulations incorporating a near-field pairwise resistance model accounting for these enhanced frictional modes were employed to compute particle trajectories in shear flow. In this model, the resistance to sliding and rolling modes of motion are augmented from a weakly diverging log$(1/h)$ form for smoo…
In the current work we present a new modelling approach for simulating meso-scopic phenomena related to lubrication of the piston ring-cylinder liner contact. Our geometry allows a variable confinement gap and a varying amount of lubricant in the gap, while avoiding the squeeze-out of the lubricant into vacuum. We have implemented a coarse grain molecular dynamics description of an ionic liquid as a lubricant which can expand into lateral reservoirs. The results have revealed two regimes of lubrication, an elasto-hydrodynamic one under low loads and one with low, velocity-independent specific …
We report results of investigations of a high-speed drainage of thin aqueous films squeezed between randomly nanorough surfaces. A significant decrease in hydrodynamic resistance force as compared with predicted by Taylor's equation is observed. However, this reduction in force does not represents the slippage. The measured force is exactly the same as that between equivalent smooth surfaces obeying no-slip boundary conditions, but located at the intermediate position between peaks and valleys of asperities. The shift in hydrodynamic thickness is shown to be independent on the separation and/o…
The effect of random surface roughness on hydrodynamics of viscous incompressible liquid is discussed. Roughness-driven contributions to hydrodynamic flows, energy dissipation, and friction force are calculated in a wide range of parameters. When the hydrodynamic decay length (the viscous wave penetration depth) is larger than the size of random surface inhomogeneities, it is possible to replace a random rough surface by effective stick-slip boundary conditions on a flat surface with two constants: the stick-slip length and the renormalization of viscosity near the boundary. The stick-slip len…
The steady motion and deformation of a lipid-bilayer vesicle translating through a circular tube in low Reynolds number pressure-driven flow are investigated numerically using an axisymmetric boundary element method. This fluid-structure interaction problem is determined by three dimensionless parameters: reduced volume (a measure of the vesicle asphericity), geometric confinement (the ratio of the vesicle effective radius to the tube radius), and capillary number (the ratio of viscous to bending forces). The physical constraints of a vesicle -- fixed surface area and enclosed volume when it i…
Shear flow of dense, non-Brownian suspensions is simulated using the discrete element method, taking particle contact and hydrodynamic lubrication into account. The resulting flow regimes are mapped in the parametric space of solid volume fraction, shear rate, fluid viscosity and particle stiffness. Below a critical volume fraction $ϕ_c$, the rheology is governed by the Stokes number, which distinguishes between viscous and inertial flow regimes. Above $ϕ_c$, a quasistatic regime exists for low and moderate shear rates. At very high shear rates, the $ϕ$ dependence is lost and soft particle rhe…
We study the hydrodynamic coupling between particles and solid, rough boundaries characterized by random surface textures. Using the Lorentz reciprocal theorem, we derive analytical expressions for the grand mobility tensor of a spherical particle and find that roughness-induced velocities vary nonmonotonically with the characteristic wavelength of the surface. In contrast to sedimentation near a planar wall, our theory predicts continuous particle translation transverse and perpendicular to the applied force. Most prominently, this motion manifests itself in a variance of particle displacemen…
Conditions for the stability under linear perturbations around the homogeneous cooling state are studied for dilute granular gases of inelastic and rough hard disks or spheres with constant coefficients of normal ($α$) and tangential ($β$) restitution. After a formally exact linear stability analysis of the Navier--Stokes--Fourier hydrodynamic equations in terms of the translational ($d_t$) and rotational ($d_r$) degrees of freedom, the transport coefficients derived in the companion paper [A. Megías and A. Santos, "Hydrodynamics of granular gases of inelastic and rough hard disks or spheres. …
The transport coefficients for dilute granular gases of inelastic and rough hard disks or spheres with constant coefficients of normal ($α$) and tangential ($β$) restitution are obtained in a unified framework as functions of the number of translational ($d_t$) and rotational ($d_r$) degrees of freedom. The derivation is carried out by means of the Chapman--Enskog method with a Sonine-like approximation in which, in contrast to previous approaches, the reference distribution function for angular velocities does not need to be specified. The well-known case of purely smooth $d$-dimensional part…
In this work we address the question of whether a low-density system composed of identical rough particles may reach hydrodynamic states (also called \textit{normal} states), even if energy is not conserved in particle collisions. As a way to measure the ability of the system to present a hydrodynamic behavior, we focus on the so-called homogeneous cooling state of the granular gas and look at the corresponding relaxation time as a function of inelasticity and roughness. We report computer simulation results of the sixth- and eighth-order cumulants of the particle velocity distribution functio…
