TY - JOUR A1 - Trittel, Torsten A1 - Puzyrev, Dmitry A1 - Stannarius, Ralf T1 - Platonic solids bouncing on a vibrating plate JF - Physical Review E N2 - The energy transfer between bouncing particles and rigid boundaries during impacts is crucially influenced not only by restitution coefficients of the material but also by particle shapes. This is particularly important when such particles are mechanically agitated with vibrating plates. Inertial measurement units are able to measure all acceleration and rotational velocity components of an object and store these data for subsequent analysis. We employ them to measure the dynamics of cubes and icosahedra on vibrating plates to study the efficiency of energy transfer into the individual degrees of freedom (DOFs) of the excited object. The rotational DOFs turn out to be much less excited than the vertical translational motion. Most remarkably, there is only little difference between the two Platonic solids in both the absolute energies and the energy partition ratios. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.109.034903 VL - 109 IS - 3 PB - American Physical Society ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stannarius, Ralf A1 - Harth, Kirsten T1 - The structure of disintegrating defect clusters in smectic C freely suspended films JF - Soft Matter N2 - Disclinations or disclination clusters in smectic C freely suspended films with topological charges larger than one are unstable. They disintegrate, preferably in a spatially symmetric fashion, into single defects with individual charges of +1, which is the smallest positive topological charge allowed in polar vector fields. While the opposite process of defect annihilation is well-defined by the initial defect positions, disintegration starts from a singular state and the following scenario including the emerging regular defect patterns must be selected by specific mechanisms. We analyze experimental data and compare them with a simple model where the defect clusters adiabatically pass quasi-equilibrium solutions in one-constant approximation. It is found that the defects arrange in geometrical patterns that correspond very closely to superimposed singular defect solutions, without additional director distortions. The patterns expand by affine transformations where all distances between individual defects scale with the same time-dependent scaling factor proportional to the square-root of time. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/sm/d3sm00808h U6 - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1039/d3sm00808h IS - 19 SP - 6109 EP - 6115 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klopp, Christoph A1 - Trittel, Torsten A1 - Harth, Kirsten A1 - Stannarius, Ralf T1 - Coalescence of biphasic droplets embedded in free standing smectic A films JF - Soft Matter N2 - We investigate micrometer-sized flat droplets consisting of an isotropic core surrounded by a nematic rim in freely suspended smectic A liquid-crystal films. In contrast to purely isotropic droplets which are characterized by a sharp edge and no long-range interactions, the nematic fringe introduces a continuous film thickness change resulting in long-range mutual attraction of droplets. The coalescence scenario is divided in two phases. The first one consists in the fusion of the nematic regions. The second phase involves the dissolution of a thin nematic film between the two isotropic cores. The latter has many similarities with the rupture of thin liquid films between droplets coalescing in an immiscible viscous liquid. Coalescence of biphasic droplets in free-standing smectic films is controlled in part by the rupture of a thin nematic membrane separating the isotropic droplet cores. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/sm/d3sm01549a U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/d3sm01549a SN - 1744-683X VL - 20 IS - 5 SP - 1036 EP - 1046 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klopp, Christoph A1 - Trittel, Torsten A1 - Harth, Kirsten A1 - Stannarius, Ralf T1 - Smectic free-standing films under fast lateral compression JF - Soft Matter N2 - Smectic films in a collapsing catenoid develop spontaneous wrinkling patterns like solid sheets. Smectic freely-suspended films can wrinkle like solid sheets. This has been demonstrated earlier with shape-fluctuating smectic bubbles. Here, we exploit the collapse of smectic catenoid films with a central equatorial film to expose the latter to rapid lateral compression. Wrinkle formation is observed in the planar film and the thickness dependence of the undulation wavelength is measured. In addition to the central film, its border undergoes an undulation instability as well. Y1 - 2022 UR - http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=D1SM01207J U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/D1SM01207J SN - 1744-683X, 1744-6848 SP - 146 EP - 155 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wang, Jing A1 - Harth, Kirsten A1 - Puzyrev, Dmitry A1 - Stannarius, Ralf T1 - The effect of obstacles near a silo outlet on the discharge of soft spheres JF - New Journal of Physics KW - fluid dynamics Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ac8bea VL - 24 PB - IOP ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Trittel, Torsten A1 - Klopp, Christoph A1 - Harth, Kirsten A1 - Stannarius, Ralf T1 - Stability and Rupture of Liquid Crystal Bridges under Microgravity JF - Crystals KW - smectic liquid-crystals KW - Rayleigh-Plateau instability KW - TEXUS suborbital rocket KW - microgravity Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12081092 VL - 12 IS - 8 PB - MDPI ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Missaoui, Amine A1 - Harth, Kirsten A1 - Trittel, Torsten A1 - Klopp, Christoph A1 - Stannarius, Ralf A1 - Lacaze, Emanuelle T1 - Shape instabilities of islands in smectic films under lateral compression JF - Soft Matter Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/D2SM00144F SN - 1744-6848 VL - 16 SP - 3193 EP - 3205 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Klopp, Christoph A1 - Trittel, Torsten A1 - Stannarius, Ralf T1 - Coarsening of Quasi Two-Dimensional Emulsions Formed by Islands in Free-Standing Smectic Films JF - CHEMPHYSCHEM N2 - We study the coarsening behavior of assemblies of islands on smectic A freely suspended films in ISS microgravity experiments. The islands can be regarded as liquid inclusions in a two-dimensional fluid in analogy to liquid droplets of the discontinuous phase of an emulsion. The coarsening is effectuated by two processes, predominantly by island coalescence, but to some extend also by Ostwald ripening, whereby large islands grow at the expense of surrounding smaller ones. A peculiarity of this system is that the continuous and the discontinuous phases consist of the same material. We determine the dynamics, analyze the self-similar aging of the island size distribution and discuss characteristic exponents of the mean island growth. Smectic islands on a thin freely suspended smectic film form a quasi two-dimensional emulsion, without a liquid subphase. We describe the coarsening dynamics that involves island coalescence and Ostwald ripening. Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/cphc.202400166 SN - 1439-4235 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Wiley ER -