Mesoscale modelling of near-contact interactions for complex flowing interfaces

We present a mesoscale kinetic model for multicomponent flows, augmented with a short range forcing term, aimed at describing the combined effect of surface tension and near-contact interactions operating at the fluid interface level. Such a mesoscale approach is shown to (i) accurately capture the complex dynamics of bouncing colliding droplets for different values of the main governing parameters, (ii) predict quantitatively the effective viscosity of dense emulsions in micro-channels and (iii) simulate the formation of the so-called soft flowing crystals in microfluidic focusers.

Acoustic-propagation properties of methane clathrate hydrates from non-equilibrium molecular dynamics

Given methane hydrates' importance in marine sediments, as well as the widespread use of seabed acoustic-signaling methods in oil and gas exploration, the elastic characterization of these materials is particularly relevant. A greater understanding of the properties governing phonon, sound, and acoustic propagation would help to better classify methane-hydrate deposits, aiding in their discovery.

A HYBRID MODEL OF COLLECTIVE MOTION OF DISCRETE PARTICLES UNDER ALIGNMENT AND CONTINUUM CHEMOTAXIS

In this paper we propose and study a hybrid discrete-continuous mathematical model of collective motion under alignment and chemotaxis effect. Starting from paper [23], in which the Cucker-Smale model [22] was coupled with other cell mechanisms, to describe the cell migration and self-organization in the zebrafish lateral line primordium, we introduce a simplified model in which the coupling between an alignment and chemotaxis mechanism acts on a system of interacting particles.

Numerical analysis of the dynamics of rigid blocks subjected to support excitation

The dynamic behaviour of rigid blocks subjected to support excitation is represented by discontinuous differential equations with state jumps. In the numerical simulation of these systems, the jump times corresponding to the numerical trajectory do not coincide with the ones of the given problem. When multiple state jumps occur, this approximation may affect the accuracy of the solution and even cause an order reduction in the method. Focus here is on the error behaviour in the numerical dynamic.

Long-time behaviour of the approximate solution to quasi-convolution Volterra equations

The integral representation of some biological phenomena consists in Volterra equations whose kernels involve a convolution term plus a non convolution one. Some significative applications arise in linearised models of cell migration and collective motion, as described in Di Costanzo et al. (Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. Ser. B 25 (2020) 443-472), Etchegaray et al. (Integral Methods in Science and Engineering (2015)), Grec et al. (J. Theor. Biol. 452 (2018) 35-46) where the asymptotic behaviour of the analytical solution has been extensively investigated.

Intermittency in the relative separations of tracers and of heavy particles in turbulent flows

Results from direct numerical simulations (DNS) of particle relative dispersion in three-dimensional homogeneous and isotropic turbulence at Reynolds number Re?~300 are presented. We study point-like passive tracers and heavy particles, at Stokes number St=0.6,1 and 5. Particles are emitted from localised sources, in bunches of thousands, periodically in time, allowing an unprecedented statistical accuracy to be reached, with a total number of events for two-point observables of the order of 1011.

Heat-flux scaling in turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection with an imposed longitudinal wind

We present a numerical study of Rayleigh-Benard convection disturbed by a longitudinal wind. Our results show that under the action of the wind, the vertical heat flux through the cell initially decreases, due to the mechanism of plume sweeping, and then increases again when turbulent forced convection dominates over the buoyancy. As a result, the Nusselt number is a nonmonotonic function of the shear Reynolds number. We provide simple models that capture with good accuracy all the dynamical regimes observed.