Scaling variation in the pinch-off of colloid-polymer mixtures.

Hypothesis: The scaling laws of drop pinch-off are known to be affected by drop compositions including dissolved polymers and non-Brownian particles. When the size of the particles is comparable to the characteristic length scale of the polymer network, these particles may interact strongly with the polymer environment, leading to new types of scaling behaviors not reported before.

Experiments: Using high-speed imaging, we experimentally studied the time evolution of the neck diameter h of drops composed of silica nanoparticles dispersed in PEO solution when extruded from a nozzle.

Chemotaxis of an elastic flagellated microrobot.

Machine learning algorithms offer a tool to boost mobility and flexibility of a synthetic microswimmer, hence may help us design truly smart microrobots. In this work, we design a two-gait microrobot swimming in circular or helical trajectory. It utilizes the coupling between flagellum elasticity and resistive force to change the characteristics of swimming trajectory.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of a Jet in a Binary System at Supercritical Environment.

With the development of large-thrust liquid rocket engines, the behavior of liquid in supercritical conditions arouses increasing public interest. Due to the high pressure and temperature of the combustion chamber, fuel reaches its critical point much more easily, and enters supercritical conditions. Due to the drastic changes in the physical properties of the fluid near the critical point, it is usually difficult to simulate the fluid motion using traditional computational fluid dynamic methods; but molecular dynamics (MD) can simulate fluid motion at the molecular level.