Liquid walls and interfaces in arbitrary directions stabilized by vibrations

Gravity shapes liquids and plays a crucial role in their internal balance. Creating new equilibrium configurations irrespective of the presence of a gravitational field is challenging with applications on Earth as well as in zero-gravity environments. Vibrations are known to alter the shape of liqui...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2021-11, Vol.118 (48), p.1-7
Main Authors: Apffel, Benjamin, Hidalgo-Caballero, Samuel, Eddi, Antonin, Fort, Emmanuel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Artificial gravity
Boundary conditions
Destabilization
Dynamic stability
Equilibrium
Gravitational fields
Gravity
Incompressibility
Interface stability
Interfaces
Physical Sciences
Physics
Velocity
Velocity distribution
Velocity gradient
Vibrations
Walls
Weightlessness
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Summary:Gravity shapes liquids and plays a crucial role in their internal balance. Creating new equilibrium configurations irrespective of the presence of a gravitational field is challenging with applications on Earth as well as in zero-gravity environments. Vibrations are known to alter the shape of liquid interfaces and also to change internal dynamics and stability in depth. Here, we show that vibrations can also create an “artificial gravity” in any direction. We demonstrate that a liquid can maintain an inclined interface when shaken in an arbitrary direction. A necessary condition for the equilibrium to occur is the existence of a velocity gradient determined by dynamical boundary conditions. However, the no-slip boundary condition and incompressibility can perturb the required velocity profile, leading to a destabilization of the equilibrium. We show that liquid layers provide a solution, and liquid walls of several centimeters in height can thus be stabilized. We show that the buoyancy equilibrium is not affected by the forcing.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2111214118