73th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (November 22, 2020 — November 24, 2020)

V0032: Capillary surfers

Authors

• Giuseppe Pucci, School of Engineering, Brown University, 184 Hope Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA and Univ Rennes, CNRS, IPR (Institut de Physique de Rennes) ­ UMR 6251, F­35000 Rennes, France
• Ian Ho, School of Engineering, Brown University, 184 Hope Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA
• Daniel M. Harris, School of Engineering, Brown University, 184 Hope Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2020.GFM.V0032

We explore the dynamics of millimetric bodies trapped at the air-water interface of an oscillating bath. The relative vertical motion of the body and the free surface leads to the generation of propagating capillary waves. When the rotational symmetry of an individual particle is broken, the particle can steadily self-propel along the interface. Such self-propelled particles interact with one another through their mutual capillary wavefield, and exhibit a rich set of collective modes characterized by a discrete number of equilibrium spacings. Our results open the door to further investigations of this novel active system at the fluid interface.