AME Seminar

Speaker: Jun Zhang , Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, NYU

Talk Title: Ratchets in Fluid Transportation and in Biological Locomotion

Abstract: I discuss several cases where a broken symmetry—either broken spontaneously or by construction—leads to ratcheting behavior in systems where dynamic boundaries interact with moving fluids. Two examples feature reciprocal forcing combined with geometric anisotropy of boundaries. In one case a solid body can be made to hover stably, and in another, a fluid is efficiently pumped. I will also discuss the dynamics of a symmetric wing whose forward flight follows from a symmetry breaking instability, and how this dynamics is affected by the introduction of more biological realism.

Host: Dr. E. Kanso

More Info: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcoming

Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 100

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: April Mundy

Event Link: http://ame-www.usc.edu/seminars/index.shtml#upcoming